Jun 27 2008

ILS 599 Final Project – Themes and Variations

Published by Rose under Book Reviews, ILS599web2.0

Final Project for ILS 599 – Technology Trends in Libraries (Summer 2008), by Rose Myers

Project: Create a wiki showing themes, both literary and topical, along with related children’s picture books. The wiki will be used in conjunction with a library program looking at themes in children’s picture books at the Fairfield Woods Branch of the town public library, but it can also operate as a stand-alone online resource. It will also use the resources of LibraryThing to provide tags, recommended books, and book reviews.

Basic design of the wiki:
  • A Home page with the purpose the wiki.
  • Theme pages for major themes or categories of themes. Book titles on these pages will link to LibraryThing records.
  • A style sheet page, How To’s, so that others can contribute using a similar format.
  • A Program page for notes on running the program.

LibraryThing tools to use:

  • tagging
  • book reviews
  • recommended books for each book
1. The Library:

The Fairfield Woods Branch of the Fairfield Public Library in Fairfield, CT is a public library in a town of about 57,000 people. Fairfield is a relatively affluent community located on Long Island Sound in Connecticut. The median age is 38.5 years. The median household income is $83,512. Of the 38,158 people over the age of 25, 91.6% have at least a high school diploma and 52.2% have at least a bachelor’s degree.
—from the US 2000 Census data for Fairfield, CT (http://censtats.census.gov/data/CT/0600900126620.pdf accessed on June 27, 2008)
As of 2001, the library had 384,580 volumes; circulation per capita was 9.5.
—(http://products.cerc.com/pdf/tp/fairfield.pdf accessed on June 27, 2008)
Based on no direct information, I would guess that people are rich enough and educated enough that a reasonable number would be able to access and use the wiki and attend the program.
People, including the branch director, have expressed interest in the program. A series of similar discussions at a very small private school had attendees.

2. Purpose/justification:

Children’s picture books are undervalued by adults. I want to change that. At a minimum, the wiki is a tool for me to prepare a program at the library about themes in picture books. I envision the wiki also being useful for teachers and others looking for books on a particular theme. I hope that they will add their own topics and books to the ones I have seeded the wiki with.
Target Audience: Retirees, parents of young children, teachers of early grades and lovers of children’s literature are a likely audience. The program is aimed at the adult public.

3. Technology and other requirements:

Tools (described for a layperson):
A wiki is a website that allows people to work together to show information. The wiki I have designed has pages of themes and related books. The book titles are linked to LibraryThing, a site that lets people catalog and comment on their books. It allows “tags” to be connected to books by anyone using the site. This makes it possible to categorize books with more than the official subject headings and keywords found in library catalogs.
Web 2.0 Tools used:
  • A newly created wiki, Not Just for the Young, on Wikispaces.com, containing pages with themes and related children’s picture books (http://notjustfortheyoung.wikispaces.com/ accessed on June 27, 2008)
  • Links in the wiki pages from book titles to LibraryThing.com for book information.
  • Tags for each page with themes and other useful keywords. Tagging is an essential part of this project; subject headings for books are usually not detailed enough to find books on specific topics.
  • Flickr-based photo, modified with a picnik tool, used as the wiki’s logo.
  • Link on a wiki page to a published Google Docs file uploaded from my computer. (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d2mrqxn_2gtxzhgcz accessed on June 27, 2008)
  • Inserted file uploaded from my computer to a wiki page. (http://notjustfortheyoung.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/PBfG+Helpful+Stranger+flyer+v2.doc accessed on June 27, 2008)
  • Link from the wiki to the About page of my blog, A World in a Grain of Sand (http://rose48.edublogs.org/about/ accessed on June 27, 2008)
  • A gmail account was set up to get RSS feeds on a Google front page about changes to the pages and discussion areas of the wiki.
Potential web 2.0 tools:
  • Podcasts for some stories if permission is granted by publisher or other holder of copyright. See how the Denver Public Library’s podcasts explicitly note that permission was given by the publisher (http://podcast.denverlibrary.org/ accessed on June 27, 2008)
  • In my LibraryThing account, use tag books that link to the wiki with themes and other useful terms, write theme-based reviews of books, add theme-related books to the list of recommendations for a given book. Other users are invited to do the same.
Staff and budget required:
The fast answer is none. The wiki was developed by a library volunteer (me) in about a day; this included learning-curve time.

  • The library program could use a computer connected to the Internet and a projector to show the wiki during the program; it already has the equipment to do this.
  • However, the wiki, which is currently open to the public needs to be watched for inappropriate additions and changes and to answer questions and respond to postings.
  • Additions to the wiki and LibraryThing also will take time.
  • A subscription to wikispaces.com would get rid of ads on the side. If the library, as a non-profit organization, wants to use LibraryThing, then there is an annual charge.

4. Step by step implementation:

Sequential implementation:
a. The wiki has been set up. (http://notjustfortheyoung.wikispaces.com/ accessed on June 27, 2008) See above for all the tools used.
b. Permission to put the wiki under the auspices of the Fairfield Public Library needs to be gotten.
i. Whether the library wants to subscribe to wikispaces.com and/or LibraryThing.com should be discussed.
c. The wiki and the program need to be publicized by the library, via flyers, emails, and newsletters at their discretion.
d. The uses of the wiki need to be explained at the program.
e. A signup sheet needs to be provided at the program to see if anyone wants to meet for training on how to modify the wiki. If there is interest, then a time and location, with Internet access, needs to be found.
Ongoing implementation
a. Data should be added to the wiki and LibraryThing.
b. The wiki should be checked regularly via RSS feeds on a gmail account and by directly accessing the wiki.
c. The wiki should be backed up on a regular basis. The frequency depends on the frequency of significant changes.
5. Negative consequences:
  • People: I plan to start by trusting people to edit the wiki responsibly, albeit with backups done of themes and books and with notification of changes made to my gmail account. If there is a problem, then I will change the wiki settings to require logging in with an email. If there is still a problem, then only allow “trusted” people to make changes; these people will have to come to the library and fill out a form with their name, address and email and deposit their firstborn child. (Perhaps not the last one.)
  • Technology: The wiki does not have a good tagging mechanism. I would like a tag search to provide links to specific books, not just pages. I am hoping that LibraryThing will provide more focused search results. One book that fits with multiple themes could present a problem. If the wiki becomes enormously popular, then some way to organize all the themes will have to be considered.

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