Working towards Library 2.0

After discussing the practical uses of Wikis at the NTL Journal Club the other week, and then having a discussion with my library manager last week about training staff on Web 2.0, today was the first step toward actually doing something.

Today, I ran a staff training session on "Web reference resources". Now, in the past, the trainer has basically shown staff how to use online directories, and locate reference sites. However, I tried a different approach.

I started by talking about the way things work at the reference desk. You see, in my organisation, there is a wide range of skills amongst our reference staff. As a result, different staff have different approaches to dealing with reference questions. Some will just do a title search on the catalogue. Some will use subject headings or browse dewey numbers. Some will go straight to the reference collection and pull the appropriate tome straight from the shelf. Some will consult a website that they find useful. Some will go straight to Google and hope that they're Feeling Lucky. And the list goes on. Of course, it varies depending on how competant and knowledgeable the staff are, and of course, mostly on the customer and what their information needs are. My point is, there's a lot of different knowledge that doesn't get shared.

So I introduced them to del.icio.us, set up a new account for our reference desk, and got them bookmarking and tagging. They were already hooked - it was fun. However, they also commented that a lot of staff at the library would not be at all comfortable or confident with using this.

So I showed them wikis. Now, the plan will be to translate the raw data from our del.icio.us bookmarks into wiki entries that will be easily accessible by all library staff. It'll be our own library's reference wiki.

Finally, because this clearly wasn't ambitious enough, somebody commented that it would also be good to find a quick and easy way to log our reference enquiries, and record what resources we used to find the answer, so that we can share our reference desk practices, and be more mindful of how we approach ref questions.

The answer? Twitter. It can be used from multiple sites to record our reference work and share this knowledge between staff.

Now to keep the ball rolling, and hope that they play. :)