Jamie Coniglio, George Mason University
- computers aren’t technology
- internet is better than tv
- doing is more important than knowing
- learning more closely resembles nintendo than logic
- multitasking is a way of life
- typing is preferred to handwriting
- staying connected is essential
- zero tolerance for delays
- consumer/creator are blurring
quick overview of social networking and different types of sites
at George Mason University, they’re playing with:
- wiki for internal communication
(showed Chad Boeninger’s business wiki as an example of a public wiki)
- Meebo widget chat box
- blogs, although they have fewer now than before because they were using them to route around the fact they didn’t have a CMS
- moving to a research portal that blends WordPress and the Internet Scout Toolkit
- have fooled around with MySpace, and they’ll respond, but not much going on for them there
- same thing with Facebook
- seriously looking at LibGuides; playing with it right now
- have discovered Zoho and are trying Zoho Show as a way to share materials among staff
- del.icio.us bookmark sets
- showed the UThink blogging project at the University of Minnesota
- virtual reality
- showed the browser Flock
marketing & social networks
- keep your content fresh
- provide reliable content
- know your market
- have good content
from an organizational point of view, where do we put the personnel for this
challenges
- declining visits/gate counts (at least in academia)
- fewer reference desk transactions
- fewer circulations of print materials
- competitors in the information environment
- disintermediation
- being where our users
- being useful where our users are
- realizing we aren’t in control (chaotic versus structured)
- silo-ing or personalization
- who’s on desk
- face time versus online
- privacy? her staff uses nom de plumes on Facebook to protect their email addresses and identities
- keeping up/”losing” skills
- getting/keeping good parapros
- riding the tsunami
- organizational structure/agility
free the bound periodicals? and more?
- discomfort (certainty versus uncertainty)
students aren’t using their GMU email addresses because they already have other personal ones
responses
- stay aware of “uber” environment to kee up
- pilot/try it out (if someone wants to try it, she says sure)
- student input/feedback/training us
- keep/move on/ can’t be wedded to “one way”
- avoid searching for a magic bullet; can’t emphasize flexibility enough
- departmental facility; take advantage of your staff’s expertise
- streamline aspects of “standard” job elements
- read special library “tactics”
- create zones of experimentation
- building a “knowledge practice;” start with the ones who will work with you
- closer alignment with curricular changes, emerging and redesign academic programs
- movement from “support service” toward collaboration and partnerships
- value risk-taking
- reorientation toward user-centered services; noted University of Rochester’s anthropological report published through ACRL
service transformation to
- visible
- trainer/learner
- collaborative
- informal
- visual