A couple of months ago, I mentioned that my dean asked me to give him a list of recommended Library 2.0-related projects when my sabbatical ends. I also noted that this blog began as a project to help me write this document.

My sabbatical ends next week, so it's time to release my Proposed Action Plan for a 2.0 Library. A few things to note:

• This plan is a proposal only, and includes only my ideas. It's a starting point. My colleagues will decide whatever it is that we ultimately choose to do.
• This plan is not meant to be universally relevant, but potentially relevant to my particular library. We're one of the smaller ARL libraries situated in a Ph.D.-granting university. We've taken a few steps into the 2.0 world and some of my colleagues are interested in moving forward.
• This plan is ambitious (and even so, I'm sure I left things out!), and I don't expect us to implement it point by point. But I'm hoping that it will give my colleagues some ideas about our options.

Proposed Action Plan for a 2.0 Library

Introduction

This document proposes both a general game plan and a list of selected recommendations for implementing it. The plan is ambitious, and it is assumed that any ensuing discussions within the Libraries will amend it. Unless otherwise noted, there are no recommendations about who would implement these ideas, as such determinations are beyond the scope of this document.

General Principles of Library 2.0

Much has been written about the meaning of Library 2.0. While it would be difficult to get everyone to agree on the exact parameters of Library 2.0, a general consensus seems to be coalescing around these principles:

• Libraries engage in rapid change mobilized by assessment.
• Libraries give users a participatory role in developing services modeled on their information culture.
• Libraries look to Web 2.0 as a model for developing services and building applications.
• Libraries make collections available via open, personalized, interactive services that encourage content creation, editing, commenting, bookmarking, rating, tagging, etc. by users.
• Libraries construct online spaces managed by interoperable, scalable components, e.g., content management systems, APIs, Web services, widgets, mashups, blogs, wikis.
• Libraries embrace radical trust.
• Libraries give up some measure of control.
• Library applications are in perpetual beta.
• Librarians draw users to the library, and also take the library to users, especially in networked spaces.
• Librarians are knowledgeable about and utilize information tools favored by users.
• Librarians are flexible, skilled, highly tolerant of experimentation, and champions of change to meet users’ evolving needs.

First Steps

1. Ask the Library Policy Group and the Library Management Group to become familiar with the concepts and emerging practices of Library 2.0, and to address the following questions:

1. What is our view of Library 2.0 and its applicability to the University Libraries?
2. What trends do we see regarding our users and their use of the Libraries that 2.0 concepts can address?
3. What are we lacking in our vision and practices that 2.0 concepts might help us to achieve?
4. What attracts us to 2.0 concepts and practices that might become goals?
5. What commitments will the University Libraries make to implement these goals?
6. What reordering of priorities are we willing to make?
7. What lower-value tasks are we willing to set aside to make way for tasks that have higher value in a 2.0 environment?
8. How can we reconfigure current positions to meet 2.0 goals?
9. What 2.0-related knowledge and skills should we expect from academic and professional staff, and how will we bring this about?
10. What do we want from new hires to help us reach our goals?
11. What new types of positions do we want to create when the opportunities arise?

The answers to these questions - and others that will surely emerge from LPG and LMG - ideally would be an explicit endorsement by these groups of a 2.0 game plan, support for this plan, and participation in it.

2. As the Libraries address these questions and consider the action steps below, ask Assistant Directors and department heads to review positions descriptions with their staff with the goal of setting aside lower-value tasks and endorsing higher-value tasks that will position the Libraries to meet the evolving research and service needs of the University at Albany community.

The Plan

Library 2.0 Principles

• Libraries engage in rapid change mobilized by assessment.
• Libraries give users a participatory role in developing services modeled on their information culture.

Selected Action Steps

1. Implement an assessment program that seeks regular faculty and student input, focusing especially on the research process and the Libraries’ ability to support this process with the appropriate services and tools. One component of this might be a faculty/student advisory group.
2. Investigate users’ engagement in social networking, blogging, wiki editing, file sharing, social bookmarking, tagging, instant messaging and other online tools, and determine the interest in applying these types of tools to the Libraries’ information environment.
3. Reserve a few work-study positions for students to become members of library committees – possibly as rovers - so that the Libraries can gain ongoing student input.
4. Ask supervisors to work with their staff to identify ways in which new tools can be utilized to provide services that their users need, based on the findings in the assessment efforts described above.

Library 2.0 Principles

• Libraries look to Web 2.0 as a model for developing services and building applications.
• Libraries make collections available via open, personalized, interactive services that encourage content creation, editing, commenting, bookmarking, rating, tagging, etc. by users.
• Libraries construct online spaces managed by interoperable, scalable components, e.g., content management systems, APIs, Web services, widgets, mashups, blogs, wikis.
• Libraries embrace radical trust.
• Libraries give up some measure of control.

Selected Action Steps

1. Initiate a wiki program for the Libraries. This should be a priority, as wiki requests have already come in.
2. Actively position the Libraries at the center of scholarly communication on campus. Begin with establishing a campus-wide blog and wiki program by working with ITS and other stakeholders to implement this. ITS has begun platform tests but its plans are unclear.
3. Migrate the Staff Intranet site to a wiki.
4. Use blogs and wikis to open up the process of developing in-library documents to include comments and trackable revisions, e.g., University Libraries Goals, Policies and Procedures.
5. Migrate the public Web site to a Content Management System; migrate selected content to wiki pages and blogs as described below.
6. Consider the use of editable wiki pages on our Web site, e.g., subject and reference resource pages, pathfinders, help pages, FAQs. Invite participation by affiliated members of the University community.
7. Encourage the use of blogs for public communication with our constituencies about library resources and services, e.g., blogs about public service points, electronic resources, library technology, etc.
8. Sponsor blogs to encourage civic engagement by the University community. For example, create a current events blog that features entries by library and teaching faculty and invites comments by the university community.
9. Encourage blogging by library administration.
10. Consider a redesign of Minerva, ERes and ILLiad to match the redesign of the public Web site.
11. Incorporate widgets, Web services and other technologies into our online spaces to enhance their functionality.
12. Explore enhancements that offer collaboration and content manipulation on the Libraries’ Web presence.
13. Implement RSS distribution of library content, e.g., new resources on Minerva, TOC e-journal alerts, new additions to subject pages, etc.
14. Ask bibliographers and reference librarians to incorporate, when appropriate, external RSS feeds on our Web site from scholarly sites, blogs, news, etc. Various scripts and third party RSS aggregators can be used to accomplish this.
15. Ask bibliographers and reference librarians to incorporate, when appropriate, custom search tools on our Web site on specific topics or across a specific scope of Web sites using such services as Eurekster Swicki, Rollyo and Google Co-op.
16. Identify the Libraries with podcasting. Create a podcast series with news, tips, research advice, interviews, features, tours, etc., and make the podcasts available on our Web site and via RSS feed. (Note that the RSS feed is the defining characteristic of a podcast.) Consider the creation of a campus podcasting studio, for example in the Interactive Media Center or Information Commons.
17. Establish improved procedures for and assessment of technical support. This might include creation of more online FAQs and how-to’s, establishment of question tracking, etc.
18. Hire work-study students to serve as greeters and roving helpers to provide peer-to-peer assistance at the point of need within the University Library building.

Library 2.0 Principle

• Librarians draw users to the library, and also take the library to users, especially in networked spaces.

Selected Action Steps

1. Create a UA Libraries presence on MySpace, Facebook, and/or other social networking spaces.
2. Experiment with creating topical resource lists on one or more social bookmarking sites; publicize these efforts and invite student participation.
3. Regularly upload publicity, event and other photos to Flickr. Create a collection of these photos identified with the UA Libraries. Ask other staff (e.g., Special Collections) to identify their Flickr photos with the Libraries’ collection.
4. Join the Google Scholar Library Links Program and load our SFX holdings data into Google Scholar. Provide a proxied link to Google Scholar so that all affiliated users will have access to our licensed full text articles encountered within Google Scholar. Feature Google Scholar links prominently on Library Web spaces.
5. Enhance the Libraries’ presence in the University’s course management system.
6. Utilize instant messenger software to communicate with users.
7. Begin to optimize the Libraries’ Web spaces for mobile devices.
8. Consider spearheading a campus presence on iTunes U.
9. Seek student and faculty input when revamping, developing and enhancing the Libraries’ physical spaces.

Library 2.0 Principle

• Library applications are in perpetual beta.

Selected Action Step

1. Hire a creative, experienced programmer, comfortable in both the Windows and Linux – Apache – MySQL – PHP (LAMP) environment, to create innovative applications that will enhance the searchability, findability and manipulability of library resources.

Library 2.0 Principles

• Librarians are knowledgeable about and utilize information tools favored by users.
• Librarians are flexible, skilled, highly tolerant of experimentation, and champions of change to meet users’ evolving needs.

Selected Action Steps

1. Create a space on the staff wiki that serves as a resource collection about Library 2.0, including links to useful articles, blogs/RSS feeds, wikis and library initiatives.
2. Ask the Coordinating Committee on Staff Development and Training to create a program series on Library 2.0 topics.
3. Develop an immersion program to give staff the opportunity for self-paced, hands-on experience with 2.0 tools referred to in this Plan. Participation would be recommended for all academic librarians, some professional staff based on their positions, and management. The outcome would be a series of follow-up plans documented on the staff wiki.
4. Organize a day-long retreat in-house to promote 2.0 concepts, offer practice with 2.0 tools, create small 2.0 implementations, and develop plans for follow-up projects. Include students among the presenters.
5. Offer a monthly self-paced learning day for all academic librarians and some professional staff based on their positions. Staff might opt to work in groups. Activities and outcomes would be documented on the staff wiki so that staff can get inspiration for their own learning programs.
6. As lines become available, hire for new types of positions, e.g., NextGen Librarian, Collaborative Publishing Librarian.
7. Include requirements for skills with Web 2.0 tools in the position descriptions of all relevant new positions for academic and professional staff.