Rice Library reaching out with Web 2.0 technology
David L. Rice Library is increasing its Web 2.0 presence with the implementation of a blog and a Facebook page. Several librarians and I collaborated to create the Let’s Talk Library blog and the library’s Facebook page, in order to quickly update the USI community with information about new resources, events, and services. The term “Web 2.0” describes interacting with the Internet that is user-centered and collaborative. Second Life, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook, and blogs are all examples of well-known Web 2.0 technologies. Universities and colleges are using Web 2.0 applications specifically to reach out to students, faculty, and staff.
Let’s Talk Library (blog)
Rice Library’s new blog, Let’s Talk Library (http://ricelibrary.blogspot.com/), contains postings and photos related to library services, events, and resources. USI faculty members and students can peruse stories or subscribe to a feed of blog postings. Let’s Talk Library is available from the Rice Library home page (www.usi.edu/library). Recent postings briefly describe the Evansville Digital History Project and new e-books, but topics also cover new print resources, changes in research databases, web site enhancements, Interlibrary Loan, University Archives & Special Collections, Distance Learning Services, policies, exhibits/displays, special events, and instructional materials. For more information about Let’s Talk Library, or to learn how to subscribe to a feed of blog postings, contact me (Margie Ruppel, mdruppel@usi.edu) or Joanne Artz, assistant director and head of Reference Services (jartz@usi.edu).
Realizing the importance of meeting students on their own terms, Rice Library joined the world of Facebook in the summer of 2008. Rice Library’s Facebook page has over one hundred interested fans who keep up-to-date on what’s happening in the library world. The Rice Library Facebook page features a virtual bookshelf targeting the newest books to our collection, a discussion board where common reference questions are answered, a list of links to other web pages of interest (e.g., information on library careers or Ethiopian traveling libraries), and direct links to library resources JSTOR and WorldCat. True to the world of Web 2.0, Rice Library’s Facebook page also subscribes to feeds from the aforementioned Let’s Talk Library blog. Anyone with a Facebook account can become a fan of the David L. Rice Library’s Facebook page. The library is working to make the Facebook page another outlet for answering reference questions from students. For more information about Rice Library’s Facebook presence, contact Brooke Bolton, Instructional Services Librarian (babolton@usi.edu) or me.
POST CONTRIBUTED BY: Margie Ruppel, reference and interlibrary loan librarian, David L. Rice Library.