Library 2.0: Tools and Techniques

"Library 2.0" is a term coined by Michael Casey in his personal blog LibraryCrunch in September 2005. The concept of Library 2.0 is borrowed from that of Web 2.0 and follows some of the same underlying philosophies. When Web 2.0 applications are combined with library services, it is transformed into Library 2.0 as the application of interactive, collaborative and multimedia-based technology for library services and collection.

Library 2.0 can be defined as "a model for a modernised form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way services are delivered to users" (Wikipedia, 2011).

In Library 2.0, library services are constantly updated and re-evaluated to serve library users best. It also attempts to harness the library user in the design and implementation of library services by encouraging feedback and participation.

Tools and Techniques

Tools and techniques of Library 2.0 can be categorised as:

1. Synchronous Communication
2. Content Delivery
3. Collaborative Publishing Tools
4. Collaborative Service Platforms

Synchronous Communication (Messaging)

Instant Messaging (IM)

• Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time, virtually instantaneous communication between two or more people using typed text, images etc. 
• It becomes popular due to its quick response time, ease of use and possibility of multitasking. 
• Libraries are already deploying IM for providing "real-time reference" services, where patrons can synchronously communicate with librarians much as they would in a face-to-face reference context. 
• Software used in libraries for "live reference services" are usually much more robust than the simplistic IM applications. These software often allow co-browsing, file-sharing, screen-capturing, and data sharing and mining of previous transcripts. 
• Libraries can benefit greatly by adopting IM for CAS/SDI services as well as online (virtual) reference services.
• Examples: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, and Skype.

Content Delivery

RSS Feeds

• RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. 
• RSS is a family of Web feed format used for syndicating content from blogs or Webpages. 
• RSS feeds allows a web site (or e-publisher) to list the newest published updates (like the table of contents of journals) through XML and it also facilitates a web user to keep track of new updates on the chosen website(s). 
• Many Web browsers have built-in-feed readers or aggregators, and can easily add feeds to Webpage.
• Libraries are already creating RSS feeds for users to subscribe to, including updates on new items in a collection, new services, and new content in subscription databases. They are also republishing content on their sites. 
• Librarians can subscribe to RSS from the sources for compiling their customised alerts also.

HTML Feeds

• HTML feeds are basically, RSS feeds converted into HTML codes to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction amongst researchers and sharing of RSS search results. 
• The HTML codes can be placed onto the web sites, and the resulting HTML feed can be customised to compliment the page. 
• HTML feeds allows quicker access information to visiting users.
• The Elsevier Science has implemented HTML feeds for Scopus, the citation database from Elsevier.

Streaming Media

• Streaming multimedia is sequential delivery of multimedia content over a computer network that is displayed (or played back) to the end-user as it is being delivered by the provider. 
• With the availability of computer and network infrastructure to support multimedia streaming, library instruction delivered online began incorporating more interactive, media-rich facets. The static, text-based tutorials are being transformed to multimedia-based interactive tutorials.
• Tutorials were the first library applications to migrate into more socially rich Web 2.0. 
• Besides its applications in computer-generated instructions, streaming media would also be available increasingly in its collections. As media is created, libraries will be responsible for archiving and providing access to them. 
• Libraries are already beginning to explore providing such through digital repository applications and digital asset management technologies.
• The INFLIBNET Centre uses "YouTube" (http://in.youtube.com/inflibnet) to upload multimedia video files. All the events that are held at INFLIBNET Centre, are recorded and their contents are uploaded on YouTube for the benefit of their users.

Podcasting

• The word "podcasting" is derived from two words, namely "broadcasting" and "iPod" (a popular MP3 player from Apple Computer).
• Podcasting is defined as the "process of capturing audio digital-media files that can be distributed over the Internet using RSS feeds for playing-back on portable media players as well as computers". 
• Users can subscribe to such feeds and automatically download these files directly into an audio management program on their PCs. 
• When a user synchronises their portable audio device with their personal computer, the podcasts are automatically transferred to that device to be listened to at the time and location most convenient for the user.
• A podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.
• Several libraries use podcasts to support library orientations programmes. 
• Taking advantage of podcasting and other consumer technologies (e.g., PDAs, iPods and other MP3 players) as media to deliver Library's content and services is a great leap forward for the library profession.

Vodcasting

• The "VOD" in Vodcasting stands for "video-on-demand". 
• It is identical to podcasting. 
• While podcasting is used for delivering audio files, vodcasting is used for delivering video content. 
• Like podcast content, vodcasts content can be played either on a laptop or personal media assistant (PMA).

SMS Enquiry Service

• Short Message Service (SMS) is a mechanism of delivery of short messages over the mobile networks. 
• SMS enquiry services in a library allow patrons to use their mobile phones to SMS their inquiries to the library. 
• The reference staff deployed to attend to such queries can respond immediately with answers or with links to more in-depth explanations.

Collaborative Publishing Tools

Blogs

• A blog (an abridged form of term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video (Wikipedia, 2008). 
• Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.
• Blogs are considered as lightweight publishing tools. 
• Technologically, blogs are easier to use, platform-independent, and accessible online over the Internet. 
• Broadly, blogs can be said to be online diaries; however, thousands of blogs are maintained by experts in different subject areas who are willing to share their knowledge, understanding and opinions with other people.
• For example, Michael Casey who coined the term "Library 2.0", maintains a blog called LibraryCrunch on Library 2.0.
• The most obvious application of blogs for libraries is to use it as a tool for promotion, publicity and outreach services. 
• Libraries can disseminate information to their users, make announcements for its new resources and events through its blogs.
• The INFLIBNET Centre has started its blog (http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/blog) to encourage interactions amongst users and the INFLIBNET staff. The blog is also being used for promoting activities and services of the Centre.

Wikis

• A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites (Wikipedia, 2008).
• For example, the collaborative encyclopaedia, Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.
• Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "a simplest online database that could possibly work".
• Wikis can be equated to open webpages, where anyone registered with it can publish on to it, add to it, amend it and change it.
• Libraries can use wiki as a communication tool to enable social interaction among librarians and patrons. 
• Users can share information, ask and answer questions, and librarians can do the same within a wiki. Moreover, a record of these transactions can be archived for perpetuity. 
• Transcripts of such question-answer sessions would serve as a resource for the library to provide as reference.
• The INFLIBNET Wiki (http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/wiki/) provides detailed information on activities, functions and services of the INFLIBNET Centre. Moreover, the users of the Centre are also encouraged to contribute to the Wiki with their contents and suggestions on services and activities.

Collaborative Service Platforms

Social Networks

• A social network service is a web-based software that facilitates the creation of a virtual social network for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
• Most social network services are web-based interfaces that facilitate a community of users to interact with each other deploying tools such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, etc.
• MySpace, FaceBook, Del.icio.us, Frappr, and Flickr are some of the social networking services that are very popular.
• Social networking services could enable librarians and patrons not only to interact but to share and exchange resources dynamically in an electronic environment. 
• Users can create accounts with the library network service, see what other users have in common to their information needs, recommend resources to one another. 
• Besides, libraries can also recommend resources to users through their network, based on similar profiles, demographics, previously-accessed resources, and a host of data that users provide.
• The INFLIBNET Centre have a Facebook Page, which includes links of relevant parts of Centre's website, link to RSS aggregation services and search applications.

Tagging

• A tag is a keyword or term or subject heading assigned to a piece of information (a picture, a geographic map, a blog entry, a video clip etc.,), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification and search of information. 
• Tags are usually chosen informally and personally by the author/creator or by its consumer/viewers/community.
• Tags are typically used for resources such as computer files, web pages, digital images, and Internet bookmarks.
• The user can define and categorise information based on his or her own perception of a given piece of information. 
• In Library 2.0, users could tag the library's collection and thereby participate in the cataloguing process. 
• The best thing about tagging is that everyone is allowed to categorise the information the way they want. 
• The catalogues of Library 2.0 would enable users to follow both standardised and user tagged subjects, whichever is more convenient or makes better sense to a user. This tagged catalogue would be an open catalogue, a customised, user-centred catalogue.
• The University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK, for example, has introduced Web 2.0 features into their library catalogue and options for rating the books as well as dynamic floor plans showing locations of subject areas with an aim to make the catalogue more interactive tool. 

Social Bookmarking Services

• Social bookmarking is a method of storing, organising, searching and managing bookmarks of web sites using descriptive metadata. 
• In a social bookmarking system, users can save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share with other users. 
• These bookmarks can be made public, or saved privately or shared only with specified people or groups of people. 
• The authorised people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.
• Most social bookmark services encourage users to organise their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders. 
• These services also enable viewing of bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. 
• Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.
• itList, Blinklist, Clip2, ClickMarks, HotLinks, del.icio.us, Furl, Simpy, Citeulike and Connotea, Stumbleupon, Ma.gnolia, Blue Dot, Diigo, etc. are some of the popular bookmarking services.
• Libraries can make use of social bookmarking sites using RSS feeds for subject disciplines or in areas of specialisation relevant to them.

Hybrid Applications, Programs and Programming Tools

Mashups, Ajax, API and Library toolbar, are applications that can be deployed effectively to implement Library 2.0 features into a traditional library.

Mashups

• A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. 
• It is a hybrid of blogs, wikis, streaming media, content aggregators, instant messaging, and social networks. 
• Mashups are applications, where two or more technologies or services are merged into a completely new, novel service. 
• Mashups can be considered to have an active role in the evolution of social software and Web 2.0.
• Originally, mashup referred to the practice in pop music (notably hip-hop) of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces.
• Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API (web services). 
• Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom), and screen scraping.
• Retrivr, for example, merges the functioning of Flickr's image database and an experimental information architecture algorithm to enable users to search images not by metadata, but by the data itself. Users search for images by sketching images.
• Another example is WikiBios, a site where users create online biographies of one another, essentially blending blogs with social networks.
• Mashup in Library 2.0 environment remembers a user when they log in. It allows the user to edit OPAC data and metadata, saves the user's tags, IM conversations with librarians, wiki entries with other users (and catalogues all of these for others to use), and the user is able to make all or part of their profile public; users can see what other users have similar items checked-out, borrow and lend tags, and a giant user-driven catalogue is created and mashed with the traditional catalogue.
• There are a number of mashup platforms that can be used to create mashups, e.g. Intel Mash Maker, Google Mashup Editor, LiquidApps, Microsoft Popfly, Serena Mashup Editor, Yahoo pipes, etc.

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

• Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), or AJAX, is a group of inter-related web development techniques used for creating interactive web applications.
• The technology facilitates web pages to interact with users by exchanging small amounts of data with the server "behind the scene" so that entire web pages do not have to be reloaded each time there is a need to fetch data from the server. This is intended to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, functionality and usability.
• Ajax is a cross-platform technique usable on many different operating systems, computer architectures, and web browsers as it is based on open standards such as JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM).
• There are free and open-source implementations of suitable frameworks and libraries.
• In libraries, Webpages can update frequently with new messages with help of Ajax to the user interface without reloading the entire browser page.

Application Programming Interface (API)

• An application Programming Interface (API) is a source code interface provided by an operating system, library or service to support requests made by computer programs.
• Language-dependent APIs are available only in a particular programming language. 
• They utilise the syntax and elements of the programming language to make the API convenient to use in this particular context.
• Language-independent APIs are written in a way that they can be called from several programming languages. 
• This is a desired feature for a service style API which is not bound to a particular process or system and is available as a remote procedure call.
• Examples of API are Windows API, Scopus API that enables a user to select Scopus data elements to your own mashups.
• A new Application Programming Interface (API) has been developed as a frontend to interact with INFLIBNET's union databases for books, serials and theses stored in MS SQL as back-end database using Java, JSP, Servlet, Ajax technologies. The interface also facilitates universities to restrict their searches to their own collections. 

Library Toolbars

• A toolbar is a graphical user interface consisting of a panel of buttons, icons, menus or commands that are used more often in an application.
• Toolbars are used in common applications such as Microsoft Word, and as add-ons for web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
• The INFLIBNET Centre has developed its toolbar to show-off its e-resources, databases, products and services.

To read more about Library 2.0, visit:

• http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/ir/bitstream/1944/1460/1/5.pdf
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327232050_Library_20_Tools_Techniques
• http://www.webology.org/2006/v3n2/a25.html
• http://www.librarycrunch.com