The Corporate Librarian

A rather sensational article by the New York Times has caused quite the to-do in the tech blogosphere. Doc Searls wonders if tech blogging hasn’t become more about flogging, and wonders how to get past that. Setting aside the issue of taking a part for the whole, I’ve got a few thoughts on that.

First, I think some of the issues Doc discusses are part of a larger shift in culture that’s been going on for hundreds of years - the rise of the pundit, of cultural celebrities and of people famous for being famous. I don’t think online interaction is somehow a special case disconnected from the rest of human interaction. I think expecting otherwise leads to situations like Kathy Sierra’s. Specifically, I think it’s dangerous, setting up an argument in which bloggers are judged by their presumed intentions (”I’m trying to inform people, that person’s just seeking traffic”). I freely admit to some bias here, as someone who selfishly wouldn’t mind some recognition who puts stuff out there that’s hopefully of interest and of use to people.

Second, Doc and others ignore the positive aspects: the new voices that have come into conversations, the people who have been able to better their circumstances.

Third, he misses the conversations already online that aren’t blogging - chat, instant messaging, podcasts, videos. Blogging is just the more visible portion of the iceberg.

I follow some of the “top” library bloggers. I also talk to people you may never have heard of in Meebo. I send email messages. I trade IMs. I hang out in Second Life.

So what does this have to do with the library world, and with corporate libraries in particular?

1. We’re trained to evaluate sources - maybe we should work on evaluating tools as well?
2. We constantly seek information outside our organizations.
3. It’s never been easier to learn new skills, in part because of blogs and other forms of online communication. Whether it’s the organizers pulling together the Five Weeks to a Social Library course, or the plethora of Library Camps out there, these would be much more difficult without online communications.

Walt Crawford noted in one of his posts: “I’m inclined to believe that blogging in general may have peaked in 2007, and that liblogs might have peaked then, but that’s just a belief.” I’m not sure on that myself - certainly there’s still lively discussion on, say, a proposed online conference tool. But say that liblogs have peaked - does that mean the useful conversations themselves have ended? Or have they moved to other venues? Perhaps we are beyond blogging after all.

(Note: This isn’t intended as an attack on Doc Searls or anyone else - several posts just reminded me of some things I’d been brooding on for a while)

I’ve been playing with Ning, which seems to have re-envisioned itself from “letting non-coders build programs” to “letting anyone build a social network.” I question the advantage of going with Ning over something like PeopleAggregator, say, but from what I understand it’s a work in process. Some weird design decisions - Why would I want to keep the same Ning ID across all my Ning communities? Why have a blog module rather than letting people import their blog entries from elsewhere? Why can’t I subscribe to individual forum threads in RSS? Nevertheless, you can make some interesting sites through incorporation of widgets - for a while, Bill Drew, the founder of Library20.ning.com, had a chat widget front-and-center, now replaced by a Google Calendar for the group. From what Bill says, Ning plans to add chat and wiki functionality, which would make it much more useful.

In an effort to let more people participate, I’ll either be launching a Ning site for Library Camp NYC once we’ve finally confirmed dates (a venue is definitely set - this will happen) or a PeopleAggregator site. That way, people attending in person as well as virtually can post on topics as well as seeing whatever media gets published (audio, photos, video). Bill’s been interviewed by Stephanie Vance for an article on how associations can use technology to engage members, which seems especially timely.

UPDATE: Realized you can import blogs using the RSS box. OK, one complaint gone.

UPDATE THE SECOND: Bill Drew says you can subscribe to individual forum threads via RSS.

Somehow I managed to completely miss Amanda’s survey of special libraries and their usage of Web 2.0 technologies. 68 respondents isn’t bad at all - I wonder if I should do one for corporate libraries specifically (I’m not sure why law firms are their own category).

Things which struck me:

• Widespread adoption of RSS frankly surprised me. Perhaps I’m a pessimist in such matters. I’m curious how much of this is usage of RSS aggregators by the staff, how much is syndicating feeds for the library, etc.. I’m also curious as to which types of libraries tend to use RSS - my impression is that law libraries lag, based on posts such as Steve Matthews’.
• I’m also curious how much 2.0 technologies are used for internal purposes by library staff (e.g., internal staff communications) versus usage by/in collaboration with the libraries’ customers

What say you lot - worth doing a follow-up survey? Any suggestions for publicizing the survey if I do go ahead with it (I’m thinking perhaps BUSLIB-L)?

One of the purposes of this blog is to encourage collaborative thinking on what model or models corporate libraries should move towards. For all the talk about Library 2.0, a lot of the examples seem to come from the academic or public library world. This seems odd to me, as corporate libraries are at least as challenged as our academic and public brethren when it comes to being required to provide the same or better service with flat or reduced budgets. In addition, we may face challenges unique to the corporate environment (I’m guessing), such as support for remote users. Frankly, it’s a sense of exclusion from the larger discussion that’s led me to starting this blog and to organizing Library Camp NYC.

Some sketches towards such a model:

• Experiment - my experience has been that vendors are quite willing to customize their products to simplify their interfaces and to add features. This can be a challenge in the corporate environment, where one needs authorization to get servers and IT supports the entire business, not just library staff. Still, on your own time you can certainly look into blogs, social bookmarking services (which are hosted elsewhere), wikis (some of which are hosted elsewhere) and other innovative technologies. I’d really like to hear how people have dealt with these challenges, in particular.
• Empower your users - the more your users can do with resources available to them, the more interesting your work will become (to lapse into consulting-speak, you’re “moving up the value chain”) and the more you’re demonstrating your value,
• Meet your users - this can mean mingling in another part of the office, or driving/flying to provide training, or using technologies such as Centra or WebEx (or others I’m not aware of). It can be as simple as arranging to be on conference calls, or interacting via IM. Not only does this remind the larger business that the library exists and provides useful services, it also allows you to get feedback from your users as to how you’re doing and what you could be doing better or differently.

I’m currently reading Michael Habib’s paper on Academic Library 2.0 to see if there are further elements which can be adapted or adopted - but what do you all think? I freely admit to having no knowledge what librarians do in a legal, medical or scientific library setting (for example), so speak up!

UPDATE: Because I’m an idiot, I missed this post from the Industrial Librarian. The money quote:

Recently, she asked for my opinion on what I thought were the three most important social software applications in corporate libraries.

So perhaps I will have to pick up Meredith Farkas‘ book after all.

UPDATE THE SECOND: March’s Information Outlook (which oddly requires one to download a piece of software they’ll never use again for anything else to read it online) has an article from Jill Konieczko, “Library 2.0 in the Corporate World: Marketing Becomes Collaboration.”

I haven’t been able to get into Second Life this week, as I’m staying with my broadband-challenged parents. Unfortunately, this meant I fell behind on renting virtual office space, as I found out when I checked my gmail:

The object ‘HTNRS Rental Box 3.0.1′ has sent you a message from Second Life:
My First Rental Box @ Da Boom 30, 152, 71 - You were 2 days behind on your rental payments. You have been evicted. Please come and remove your objects or they will auto-returned to you.

 What does this mean? Well, Rockwell Ginsberg, the guy who rented me the virtual space probably isn’t thrilled with me. And should I wish to post another classified ad, I’ll have to find another space to associate it with. Even if it’s the virtual equivalent of “Meet me behind the school at 3.” But as far as I know there’s no “virtual credit record.”

Anyone know of good classes in marketing one’s business in Second Life?

The Corporate Librarian is holding back some, because he wants to get an article out of the whole experience, but some initial thoughts:

• Second Life seems to be tied to the model of “You have an office/store/some physical location you do business out of.” When posting a classified ad in-world, you have to associate it with an in-world location. Which seems curious, given a virtual world which allows for teleporting to people’s locations.
• The Corporate Librarian really needs to find a better way to advertise - after posting his classified ad he’s had 3 people teleport to his office when he wasn’t there and 1 look at his profile. No IMs (instant messages) inquiring about services or rates. The Corporate Librarian has bought a notecard giver, which gives notecards to avatars who touch the giver, and is trying it out as a business card dispenser in his office. He’ll see if this gets results.
• Starting a business would seem to be significantly cheaper in-world. The cost of an annual Factiva subscription? $69. The cost of starting a business so far in Second Life? $9.95 for a premium account (the Corporate Librarian wanted the option of buying land), plus $2 or so for the second week’s rent. All the other in-world costs (office space rental for the first week, office furniture, a notecard giver, posting a classified ad) were covered by the initial $1000 Linden stipend premium account members get for signing up.

The Corporate Librarian is going to poke around and see if there are any guides to marketing one’s business in Second Life.

Questions or comments?

The Corporate Librarian attended a Metaverse Meetup in Brooklyn tonight, and while his introverted tendencies got the best of him for the most part, he did talk to a wide range of people doing fascinating stuff in Second Life. In particular, while talking with Susan (avatar name Marvel Ousley), Business Editor for the Second Life News Network, it emerges that there are several outfits doing market research in Second Life.

• First Opinions Panel was set up by the Social Research Foundation to provide participants for studies by Fortune 500 companies
• Market Truths Limited is a New Zealand firm which does a wide variety of market research both within Second Life and in “First Life”
• Repères is a French firm which also operates in Second Life

I’m not sure how many people are doing a basic “Pull together information on X industry” using DIALOG or other online information services and creating a final deliverable in PowerPoint though, if any.

The Corporate Librarian has decided to try an experiment, once he’s back from Vermont with high-speed Internet access. Initially, it will just be for a few months.

He’s going to try freelance research in the world of Second Life. If you’re not familiar with Second Life, it’s a virtual world in which you have a 3-D avatar and can explore various virtual goods and services.

Now there’s a region with lots of libraries already - Info Islands I & II. The various libraries have access to various free information sources. But they’re currently bound very much by "First Life" examples - limited hours, a "physical" building to navigate. The Corporate Librarian wants to see what else is possible.

How much will users of Second Life pay for answers to their questions by a professional researcher? Second Life time is the same as Pacific time, so the Corporate Librarian can pull a shift in the evening weekdays and longer shifts on weekends and see:

• What kind of questions people ask?
• How much they’re willing to pay for the answers.

Marketing - the Corporate Librarian can give his contact details to people he meets in-world, as well as posting a classified ad in-world as well. Plus, he can solicit referrals from clients.

Research sources - The Corporate Librarian can access DIALOG and LexisNexis from their websites - get a copy of The Encyclopedia of Associations and he’s golden.

Will the Corporate Librarian be able to cover the Second Life fees, converting his fees from Lindens (the currency of Second Life - 1 Linden is about 1/270th of a dollar) to US dollars? Will he be able to cover access fees for online information services? What is the IRS policy on taxing virtual currency?

Stay tuned for the answers to these and other questions.

The equally-mysterious A noted in comments to a prior entry:

I’d love to know how corporate libraries are using web2.0 technologies—a librarian work works for the govt.

For those of you who are hazy on the whole “What is a Web 2.0 technology” question, the Corporate Librarian can recommend no better source than Tim O’Reilly’s article.

It’s not a complete definition by any means, but in connection with Library 2.0 as placing the user explicitly at the center of designing and implementing new products and services, one can think of Web 2.0 as doing the same for various software products and services. Examples might include Flickr, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, wikis.

You could stretch the point and include things such as IM (which the Corporate Librarian’s firm uses regularly), but that’s probably pushing it.

So, the Corporate Librarian tosses the question up to his readers. Which Web 2.0 technologies are you using in a corporate environment? What have the challenges been? What have been key success factors?

As usual, the Corporate Librarian is late to the party on this, but lately he’s been thinking about microformats. In plain English, microformats are a means of structuring data in a machine-readable open standard format using an extension to HTML called XHTML. The goal is to allow things like event listings, resumes and reviews to be parsed so that interesting applications can be built around them, like Emurse.com or Technorati’s Events Feed Service.

You can read all about microformats here, but the Corporate Librarian is interested in their application to libraries. Daniel Chudnov has been working with others on a bibliographic citation microformat, which could be the building-block of an open standards-based cataloging software. Check out a rudimentary example here. I believe (correct me if I’m wrong on this and I’ll edit the post accordingly) that Superpatron Ed Vielmetti kicked things off here.

Imagine a world where IT worked with librarians to develop microformat-based catalogs (or adopt existing ones), librarians notified patrons of training events which they could subscribe to using the hCalendar microformat, helped build expert networks using XFN and came up with microformats the Corporate Librarian hasn’t even thought of yet!

If you know HTML, you can pick up microformats easily enough - it’s not the same as being a hardcore coder. I really think this is an easy way librarians can:

• Build closer relationships with IT (whom I’d think would go nuts over the opportunity to work on something like this)
• Provide innovative services to patrons
• Raise awareness of librarians within their organizations