Exposing our entire staff to the social web

[Steve Campion]

Using Michael Stephens' keynote at the Polaris User's Group last October as motivation, we at Pierce County Library began a system-wide initiative delving into all the dynamics of Web 2.0. We designed a 4-hour class called "Social Web Literacy" which looks at all the ways people are using online social networking these days: wikis, gaming, personal pages, blogs, aggregators, instant messaging, etc.

A lot of the class is fast-paced demo and storytelling, but we allot time for exploration, the creation of avatars, and the start of a personal page or blog. Our intent is to blow away misconceptions, bring staff up to speed with what's happening "out there", understand the dynamic, changing environment, consider where the library fits in, and imagine what we might do to participate more actively with our online patrons.

The class is open to every employee regardless of position (thanks to management approval) and has been extremely popular. Sixteen 10-person classes have "sold out" within three days of each announcement. And we're building on the interest. We have blogs (e.g., my nonfiction book blog), podcasts (e.g., my latest effort), and RSS feeds on our public website now. We're developing a wiki, started library pages on Flickr and MySpace, and will be reworking our internal website this summer to incorporate a wiki, branch/dept blogs, tag clouds, and a host of other interactive tools.

I've never been more excited about designing or teaching a class, nor has any class prompted such a rapid and positive response.

[Steve Campion]

Thanks everyone. The class is very rewarding. The class gets people talking, thinking, and doing. Best wishes with your own programs!

[Steve Campion]

Glad you enjoyed reading through it! We use the blog as a tool during class and as a link list for students during and after. The actual postings probably come across as mild chit chat. That's because although the topic is always related to a story we told in class that morning, it's just something I type in front of everyone as a blog-writing demo. Then we use that incidental posting as a meeting place to return to and follow-up on their homework. -Steve

[Mary Ghikas]

I really enjoyed reading back through the Social Web Literacy blog -- and plan to continue doing so. It helps me to keep up, too! Thanks for sharing. I'd be interested in what others are doing within their libraries. mg

[Melanie Metzger]

Our system is getting ready to jump into this project. It's been such a huge help that everyone is sharing the information across so many platforms.