How and why special collections should be using free social web tools to reach new and existing patrons.

1. Colleen Greene, Systems Librarian The Pollak Library, California State University Fullerton Heritage Coordinating Council Presentation March 2, 2010 at the Heritage Museum of Orange County Using the Social Web to Promote and Provide Access to Special Collections

2. What exactly is the social web?

3. Definition of the social web The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web. -- Wikipedia

4. How the social web is evolving Dutch think tank video illustrating: How the social web has evolved. Where it is heading. What users ("our patrons") are coming to expect of it.

5. How patron expectations are evolving Australian library and technology non-profitmarketing video: Aimed towards libraries, still relevant to special collections, archives, and exhibits. Creative, witty, yet fabricated perspective of what younger patrons expect from us. Abby is too young to understand what she’s been coached to say. This video should make us stop and think about these ideas and concepts.

6. How patron expectations are evolving Video by educator Kelley Irish: Illustrates the changing manner in which students want to find, receive, and process information. If we want to teach them, we first have to reach the.

7. Think about it Just because our collections are historical in nature doesn’t mean that our methods for reaching and providing access to patrons should stay rooted in the past as well.

8. How can my organization justify devoting precious staff time and resources to social web efforts?

9. Reason 1: Increased opportunities to promote collections and services These sites provide FREE high traffic news and PR tools.

10. Reason 1: Increased opportunities to promote collections and services Sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr allow organizations to share videos with patrons, without having to rely upon I.T. support, server space or bandwidth.

11. Reason 2: Increased opportunities for patron engagement The popular nature of social networking sites, such as Facebook, provides a ready-made audience of real and virtual patrons.

12. Reason 2: Increased opportunities for patron engagement The New England Historic Genealogical Society uses Facebook to accept and respond to queries.

13. Reason 3: Increased opportunities to repurpose and reuse content The open standards nature of social web tools allows us to automatically cross-post news and content between multiple social channels. It is very easy to automatically cross-post between blogs, Twitter Facebook, MySpace, etc.

14. Reason 3: Increased opportunities to repurpose and reuse content Social multimedia sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr make it easy to embed or display video and photos into your websites, blogs, and Facebook pages. Students and researchers can in turn use (and credit) your photos and videos in their websites, assignments, and social sites.

15. Reason 4: increased opportunities to stay relevant to patrons Reach out to patrons using communications tools they like to use. But continue to use tools like blog headlines on your website, newsletters, and email to reach patrons who prefer traditional communication tools.

16. Reason 4: increased opportunities to stay relevant to patrons Reach out to patrons using fun new tools they like to use. Location-based social game applications like Foursquare allow patrons to share tips and earn points for completing tasks, from the convenience of a mobile phone.

17. What social web tools should my organization be using?

18. Blogs RSS is one of the foundations of the social web. Really Simple Syndication. XML allows for open standards and sharing. Blogs generate RSS. Allows users to subscribe. Blog management: Publish your own blog if you have enough original content. Or contribute to your parent organization’s blog. Blog platforms: Consider hosted vs. self-hosted and supported solutions. Many good free platforms: Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad, Posterous.

19. Social Networking Traffic

20. Choosing Social Networking Sites

21. Social Multimedia Channels Multimedia hosting services, such as Flickr, Picasa, YouTube and Vimeo allow you to to share photos and videos online: Does not require tech support to upload and manage. Does not require access to your own server. Does not use up your organization’s server space or bandwidth. Allows your staff and volunteers to push content out to your website, blogs, and social channels. Allows patrons, students and researchers to view and use your publicly accessible content. Often supports geo-tagging so that your content appears in location-based services.

22. Location-Based Services Sites such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp allow patrons to: Add your organization as a venue. Recommend Tips and To Do tasks to other patrons. Accrue points for visiting your organization. Accrue points for completing Tips and To Do tasks. Share their visits and points with other users. Find similarly tagged organizations in the area. Do this from the convenience of a mobile device. You don’t even have to set this up. Majority of content is user-generated. Organizations can’t control their venues. So you should at least monitor your venues.

23. What can I do if my organization has limited tech expertise or limited staff?

24. Start Slow Start by focusing on just 1 or 2 key social web channels. Start with the 1 or 2 channels with which your staffor volunteers are already the most familiar. HCC implemented a blog first, because it also serves as our organizational website. HCC focuses on Facebook more than Twitter, because we identified members who were already using Facebook and seemed to be comfortable with posting to it. Start by contributing to your parent organization’s social channels rather than developing separate ones right away.

25. Look for partnerships Enlist social-savvy staff and volunteers from your parent organization, and offer to contribute content. Enlist help from social-savvy students: College PR associations or Social Media User Groups. Students seeking internship or special studies opportunities: Communications students. Public History students. MLIS students.

26. How can I learn more?

27. Pollak Library Resources Guides: Special Collections and the Social Web. Twitter. Twitter for Higher Education. More coming soon! Presentations: The Pollak Library’s Social Web Presence: How we use Social Media. Making Facebook and Twitter Work for You: Marketing Your Museum, Services & Special Collections through New Social Media.

28. General Resources How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change (Blog by Beth Kanter). Museum Marketing (Blog by Jim Richardson). Tech Soup: The Technology Place for Nonprofits (Free Webinars).

29. HCC Resources Social Web Channels HCC Blog. HCC on Facebook. HCC on Twitter. HCC Training Opportunities: Interested in a bi-monthly HCC Social Web User Group? Possibly meet every other month to learn new tips and tools? Contact Stephanie or Colleen if interested. Take a test drive on our Twitter account! Contact Stephanie or Colleen for access. Use our Twitter channel to post your organization’s news and events.

30. Multimedia Credits Web 2.0. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2010, from http://www.aubonheurduweb.com/wp-content/web2.jpg. Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. (2008). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsNcjya56v8&feature=youtube_gdata. What digital natives want from their library. (2010). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_zzPBbXjWs&feature=youtube_gdata. Reaching Digital Natives. (2008). . Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZkvmpE50GQ&feature=youtube_gdata. Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2010). Teens and young adults converge in enthusiasm for social networking sites. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/crobledo/4352796496/.