Social Networking and Web 2.0 Technology Proposal

Social Networking and Web 2.0 Technology Proposal

Introduction

Creating greater opportunities for communication, collaboration and education with employees, greater coordination across departments and more effective curation of collections, social networking and web 2.0 technologies have the potential to significantly improve the value of the library to all stakeholders. Social networking systems in libraries have led to higher levels of patron satisfaction, more effective aligning of collections to the interests of every patron segment, and greater internal collaboration as well (Dickson, Holley, 2010). The downsides of high training costs, lack of adoption, security concerns and integration of cataloged books need to be addressed in any new social networking platform used in libraries (Rutherford, 2008). Changing any organizational culture is the most difficult task involved in implementing any social networking system, because people resist change until they are shown the innate value of using the new system to better do their jobs (Bernoff, Li, 2008). This proposal for implementing a new social network is specifically designed to automate key library functions and make its resources more valuable for patrons is based on a foundation of using Web 2.0 technologies. These foundational elements of Web 2.0 also have the potential to deliver greater communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing across all functional departments of the library as well. The bottom line is that social networking and Web 2.0 technologies have the potential to improve the performance of the library from a patron and internal process efficiency standpoint.

Analysis of Library Users

Based on the latest demographic information about the library patrons, females on the 18 - 44 year old segment comprise the single largest segment of users. The composition of this segment includes college students, young women just getting started on their careers, and young mothers. This is also the most time-starved segment as they get older, as children often take a large amount of time between school projects and outside activities. For this largest patron segment, a social networking application could simplify their lives and make the library more relevant, responsive and useful to them. The adoption of social networking applications including those with Facebook-like functionality has led to more efficient use of shared information and knowledge (Scale, 2008). The second-largest patron segment are males in the 18 - 44 year old segment. Like the women, many members of this segment are pursuing college educations, just beginning their careers, and also starting families. Their time is very limited as well, as the older members of this segment are working full time and parents.

These two largest segments are time-starved and need to have a library system that is intuitive, easy to use and capable of tracking those books, collections and items of the most interest. The third-largest segment of patrons are females below 18 years of age, which are elementary, junior high and college students who use the library as a place to do their home and also complete research. The fourth largest segment are men over 45 years of age who read for fun and as a hobby, and also to research hobbies and areas of interest.

Explanation of Social Networking Upgrade

Many libraries implement Web 2.0 technologies as a first step to creating more effective search engines that can index their entire catalog and make it available in real-time to patrons. Creating an effective library social networking platform needs to start with a view of how to create a content management system (CMS) first (Dickson, Holley,