I wrote this!...

I wrote this blog post for the National Library and thought I brag a little here lol

Acquisitions trip to a Canberra newsagency

BTW the title wasn't mine, the first sentence of the post is meant to be the title and is much more interesting that the one it was given

You want answers?! I want the truth! You can’t handle the truth!

Firstly apologies for quoting the courtroom exchange between Tom Cruise’s and Jack Nicholson’s characters from A Few Good Men but it seemed a good title for this post.

Finding authentic information in a socially networked world can be quite a challenge.  It’s easy to plug a few words to your browsing of choice and see what comes up, but how do you know the results you are given are the right results?  If you searched for a topic now on Google, most likely at the top, or near to it, of your results list would be a Wikipedia hit according to Garfinkel in his article ‘Wikipedia and the meaning of truth’ (2008, 111(6) Technology Review, 84-86).  Wikipedia however relies upon articles submitted by anyone, allows anyone to edit it’s articles and uses as it’s only measure of truth that the fact or opinion in the article occurrs in another article in English which is available freely online.  This has caused concern for many in regards to just how authoritative Wikipedia actually is.  Surprisingly though, studies have found that the sheer number of people willing to act as volunteer editors tends to mean articles are mostly correct with errors, either innocent or malicious, usually quickly corrected.

However there are many other pages on the internet purporting to be expert in one subject or another and it means that users must beware when accessing them lest they find themselves relying on information which is wrong.  For information professionals this is even more important as usually we are acting as information mediators.  Users who seek our help in finding information rely on what we give them to be 100% accurate.  If we provide anything less, then not only have we let that user down in not supplying their need but we also damaged or destroyed the users trust in the library as the place to seek quality information.

Therefore information professionals need to be savvy when utilising online resources.  We need to ensure the information we find is from trustworthy and reputable sources.  Sources and information alike should also be vetted and verified before we consider providing it to a user.  This is also a lesson we should be teaching the users of our library, they need to be made aware of the need to critically evaluate what they find online, be it information or the profiles of others on social networking sites.  We need to educate users to validate and verify information and the sources from which it comes and to recognise the signs on websites or user profiles which suggest the source may be trustworthy or not.

Who do you think you are? Thoughts re online identity

With the rise in the popularity of social networking sites (SNS), the issue of online identity is one which bears some considered thought.  How an individual or organisation portrays themselves online has implications.  Should a profile be a brutally honest portrayal of you or should some things be kept personal?

For an organisation the answer to this question is fairly simple, its online profile should provide an honest and accurate picture.  Goodwill, or trust, in the business world is essential if the business wants to grow and be successful.  Word of mouth is a powerful force for any organisation and if users discover an organisation’s online profile doesn’t match the reality then that news will spread like wildfire across the vastness of the online world and potential users may be turned off of dealing with the entity.  

In addition organisations need to consider who is viewing their online profile.  Are there levels of information which need to quarantined or should it all be freely available to whoever wishes to view it.  Organisation should certainly consider if they need to institute levels of access.  For example setting security levels so that staff only information is truly only available to staff.  As for other information which an organisation may want to only be accessed by some users then that too needs the appropriate security applied so that only the relevant users can access the information.

The situation is similar in some ways for individuals.  People with obviously fake profiles can be viewed critically by others who wonder what they have to hide.  Conversely, individuals may wish to not overly identify themselves due to the permanency and mine-ability of online information.  On most SNS users can select a variety of privacy controls to restrict who sees what on their profile.  However these controls do not stop the owner of the SNS from storing this information to use when and how they want.  Take Facebook for example, it recently trumpeted 500 million users, that’s a lot of information about a lot of people that can be used how Facebook wants if they think they will get away with it.

Of course it could be argued that with that many people on Facebook that surely there is some safety in the sheer volume of information collected.  Not only does your data get lost in the multitude but the multitude help to play guardian against mis-use by Facebook.   In addition there are many profiles, mine included, which aren’t used by just one person.  This means any data collected ultimately is not going to be a fully accurate portrayal of the person it is meant to represent which means the data always has a question of quality attached to it. 

At the end of the day I think it comes down to an individual or organisation taking responsibility.  Individuals and organisation alike need to be aware the potential consequences of any information they publish, not only in terms of how they appear to others but also as to how that information could be used by third parties.  Life is full of choices and how much we participate in the online world is up to us, so we should make the effort to be fully informed and then make considered decisions about what we will or won’t post online.

Social networking, libraries and privacy

Whilst it is important that libraries provide access to and utilise social networking tools, this access and use also brings with it important considerations regarding privacy, disclosure of information and online safety.  Libraries need to devise and implement policies which set out how it will deal with any information it collects from or about it users and staff need to be conversant with policies.  In addition, where a library provides the means for users to access the internet or utilises social networking tools to contact the library, then careful consideration must also be given as to how this is done.

Something as simple as a library blog throws up a whole series of issues which have to be considered.  If the blog allows comments then there exists the possibility of inappropriate or offensive posts.  The library must formulate a policy on how best to deal with this situation and this should be clearly communicated with users also.  Thought also has to be given as to whether users will be able to comment anonymously to protect their privacy.

In relation to safety, does the library install upon the public access computers software to filter content which potentially will filter out websites that are harmless?  Should a library filter content, other than that which is illegal, at all?  Is it the library’s duty to protect children from websites containing pornography even if it means denying adults access to the content?  Does library staff conduct physical monitoring of computer use?  Should the library take a pro-active stance and provide safe surfing classes and teach users about the need to protect their information online or leave it up to users to work out for themselves?

However the library decides to deal with the many issues thrown up by access to the internet and use of social networking sites, it should document carefully all policies and provide reasons why such policies have been adopted where applicable.  Ideally policies should also be created using the input of the users who will be effected by such policies.  The policies should then not only be freely available for all to access but should be a regular part of the conversation with users and staff alike.  Such policies should also never remain static.  Just as the internet and social networking constantly change and evolve, so to should any library policies concerning them.

Digital citizens behaviour & information policy

The video Did you know 4.0 outlines many shifts or trends which have an impact on how individuals behave as digital citizens.  Among trends/shifts identified in the video as at September 2009 are the following:

• Print newspapers have experienced a decline in readership whilst online it has increased.

• Revenue from online ads has increased, whilst print ad revenue has decreased.

• More video gets uploaded to Youtube in two months than gets shown over several years over multiple tv channels.

• Traditional media outlets such as tv gets a fraction of unique visits that social networking sites such as MySpace/Youtube/Facebook get per month – 10 million v 250 million – yet the social networking sites have only existed for the last 6 years.

• 95% of music downloads in a year were done for free.

• Wikipedia, which started in 2001, has more than 13 million articles in 200+ languages.

In terms of the need for, and development of, information policy in organisations, these trends/shifts demonstrate that digital citizens are behaving differently to what has previously been the norm.  Where once they sourced their information from traditional, non-online places, they are now increasingly abandoning those sources and seeking the same information online instead.

For organisations this means developing/updating information policies to allow individuals to access the information they want in the way they want to do it.  Organisations cannot afford to continue on as they have done, they must adapt to the new way of doing things if they wish to keep their traditional users and to gain new ones. Organisations must adopt use of social networking, and other online tools, to establish a relationship with users in a way users are now comfortable with and prefer to more traditional methods.

Indeed it won’t be long before this online behaviour is considered the norm thus organisation need to jump on the bandwagon sooner rather than later or else risk losing their relevance and credibility with little hope of regaining it in a market providing a multitude of other sources.