Web 2.0 and Libraries: Impacts, Technologies and Trends

Citation

Crofts, S. (2010), "Web 2.0 and Libraries: Impacts, Technologies and Trends", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 407-409. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330331011083301

Web 2.0 and Libraries: Impacts, Technologies and Trends is part of the Chandos Information Professional series and is aimed at readers in further and higher education. Staffordshire University is well represented in the content since the book is edited by Dave Parkes and Geoff Walton with contributions by Helen Walmsley and Jenny Yorke all of Staffordshire University and Liz Hart, formerly of Staffordshire University but now an independent consultant. Mark Hepworth of Loughborough University, Brian Kelly of UKOLN and David Ley of Becta contributed the other chapters. The book discusses learning and teaching and the contribution that libraries and library staff can make to this with particular reference to Web 2.0 services and resources.

In his section on online social networking, Geoff Walton outlines the development of information literacy modules at Staffordshire. Following a pilot study, the main study compared three groups of students. One group attended a face‐to‐face workshop followed by online social network learning activities on Blackboard discussion boards over six weeks; a second group attended the workshops only while the third group attended the workshops and had access to web resources but not the discussion boards. The author reports that the class tutor observed several benefits from the exercise but acknowledged that use of discussion boards required more time to set up at the outset and also that the teacher needs to post to the discussion boards to make the exercise meaningful to students. The Staffordshire students displayed the ability to take control of contributions to the discussion boards as well as developing their critical thinking skills. This research will be of interest to anyone who has used discussion boards or is considering their use in teaching information or academic literacy.

Staying with Staffordshire, Jenny Yorke and Helen Walmsley investigate the use of Web 2.0 tools by developing a community of practice for staff development. I imagine that some of the challenges they note are the same at other HE institutions, such as the number of academic staff trying to get to grip with their institution's VLE, let alone Web 2.0 tools, and the slow process of change in many institutions. Their conclusions are that such projects need to be acknowledged by the institution for the greatest effectiveness and that a community of practice can help to promote good practice across the university, can be a channel of information for new staff and can bring together different groups of staff or “tribes”.

Brian Kelly looks at the view of the institution when considering the uptake of Web 2.0 tools and the challenges presented to institutions' IT departments. Many Web 2.0 resources “challenge well‐established approaches to the development and deployment of IT services, where the application is managed in a stable environment, the release of updates is agreed with the user community and the trust of the user is managed by contractual obligations or agreement with institutional terms and conditions”. He sets out possible concerns institutions may have in adopting some services and provides some clear guidelines to deal with these in the form of a risk assessment, for which he provides a risk assessment toolkit. Case studies examine archiving pebble blogs and Brian's own UK Web Focus blog as well as the risks involved in hosting an amplified event such as the Institutional Web Management Workshop. This is likely to be a very useful source of information for those institutions thinking about a move to “cloud computing” and considering the implications and risks involved.

David Ley discusses the impact that the new Web 2.0 tools have on the lives of learners. He makes an interesting analogy between the invention of photography and the development of the digital world – “photographs did not actually capture reality, but gave us a new view of another ‘virtual’ world” before taking us on a tour of some of the aspects of technology which are exercising the minds of those in higher education. Mobile learning is an emerging area but at the moment manufacturers and developers have some challenges to resolve before it becomes widespread, for example, short battery life and connectivity. Users are changing as well; the “digital natives” indulge in much superficial activity but have “the characteristics young people have always had: no fear, plenty of spare time and strong cultural influences” and as they move into the workplace they will want to customise and control their work tools.

I found the index a little disappointing since inclusion of more terms would have made this more useful as a reference book. A good index not only helps you find facts and retrieve information after you have read the book but can also act as a glossary by bringing related terms together under one heading. Terms which I expected to find in the index were not included, for example, QR codes, although these are mentioned in Dave Parkes' chapter on transforming the library. “Amplified events”, discussed by Brian Kelly in his case study of UKOLN's Institutional Web Management Workshop, does not appear in the index. Perhaps, these were not included because of the small number of references, however, only one page reference is given for “blogs”, a term which crops up many times.

This book will be of interest to those working in both the library and IT areas. The authors have managed to report on the effects of Web 2.0 sources, a fast moving area, in a very timely manner – definitely one for the university library and the staff development bookshelf in the office.