Introduction to Social Discovery and the Library Catalog

I attended a really informative seminar today, thanks CALIFA for hosting it. There was talk of the BiblioCommons product, and Oakville Public Library’s very successful implementation, but Beth Jefferson has a lot to say about Web2.0 vs. Lib2.0, subject guides, and the future of reference.

When I’m putting together training for ccclib.org Guide Owners, I want to talk about some of the things I learned today that really had a impact on me.  Of course, the reason to offer subject guides is because you’ve anticpated a need. You offer this information one-to-one in a reference interview, but you know others will need the information too.  The best part about a subject guide is that the resources are “curated” (that’s Beth’s word and I’m going to steal it).  We want our Guide Owners to find the best sites, including those that are most relevant to our local users, and to annotate those in a way that’s meaningful.

Subject guides tie in to the future of reference in that they can be used to both amplify librarians’ voices and to invite the community to participate in providing answers to people.  We hestitate to turn on the feature in LibGuides where users can suggest a site, but after today I have no qualms about it.  I say, let the people participate.  It goes back to my previous posts about IL2008 where I heard (and completely latched onto) the idea that libraries ought to be providing platforms for participation.