Mobile strategies
Karen Stevenson and Kay Munro (Glasgow University) and Martin Morrey (Edinburgh University) presented their approaches to a mobile strategy for libraries. Based on surveys, the two projects explored how users attitudes to using mobile devices Staff responded by creating appropriate services, for example a mobile friendly catalogue with QR codes (Glasgow) or a complex University mobile app to help students manage life on campus as a whole (Edinburgh).
Libguides
Vick Cormie (St Andrews University) recommended Libguides as a successful Web 2.0 application for libraries. Its implementation can be a fast and easy way to control the presentation of libraries' resources and how they are provided to users. She described the benefits of creating subject and other guides to help students start their research.
Benefits for users, libraries and librarians
To conclude the seminar, Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer at Edina gave an overview on the latest developments and sketched out how these developments can affect libraries.
Potential areas of interest for libraries include crowdsorucing approaches tocataloging or gathering information about user needs and behaviours. Another focus for cataloguers could be in the growing self publishing sector. Without any support from professionals, a large inconsistency in metadata will arise. Nicola also alerted the audience on how personal information is being used in the Web 2.0 environment, quoting the tweet "if you are not paying for something, you are not the customer; you are the product being sold."
The seminar showed that Web 2.0 applications are a key part of the future of library services. They can be used to simplify and update library services to better meet user requirements and alos make the work of librarians - and librarians themselves - more visible and accessible to the public.
Susanne Schildbach is working as a placement student at the National Library of Scotland's Digital Collections Unit. This three month internship is part of her Bachelor Degree in Library Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany.
About CIG:
The Cataloguing and Indexing Group in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the CILIP special interest group, CIG, and provides a forum for information professionals in Scotland interested in metadata, resource discovery and the organisation of knowledge to share ideas and discuss developments in these fields.