With the development of such technology as smart phones and web 2.0, people can access information more easily than ever. Use of the web 2.0 features in library services is not limited to the library system, but provides the service for outreach education, electronic commerce, etc. Web 2.0 has provided an infrastructure within which users can participate, and when given the chance they have done so enthusiastically” (Gazan, 2008). For example, the library webpage links to Google Books and online book stores like Amazon and Library Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) so that users can search for, buy, and check out books from a nearby library or even from other states using the Interlibrary Loan Service. Also, even outside of the library, people can get information via iPhone at any time or from any place using Social Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers (Dempsey, 2009). This flexibility, which is a huge strength of Social Q&As, can make up for weaknesses in traditional education, such as limited time and the need to be physically present in libraries or schools to access information. In order to solve the problems of time and physical presence, libraries should adapt the strengths of the virtual world through Social Q&A sites. Dempsey recommends that library staffs solve the problem with increased availability: “As users interact with services on the network, library staff needs to be more visible. This is partly a matter of being accessible in the variety of ways that people communicate (e–mail, texting, etc.).” The first screen shot shows that Memorial Hall Library in Northeast Massachusetts provides 24/7 reference service via email and instant message to local residents. Providing 24/7 virtual reference service allows users access to reliable information from librarians or information experts.
Social Q&As are not based on one-to-one communication, but one-to-multiple-user communication; whereas when people go to libraries or schools, they ask questions to one teacher or reference librarian. The strengths of one-to-multiple-user communication lead to an increase in the quantity of the information and to social annotation, which “refers to uncontrolled user comments and interactions around a digital resource, to distinguish it from more formal senses of content annotation” (Gazan, 2008). Libraries should also encourage people’s participation, for example by allowing users to edit and delete contents, as in Yahoo! Answers and to communicate with librarians, web technicians, and other users. The second screen shot shows that Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan allows users to leave reviews; thus, users are not only content consumers but also content creators. In a library setting, users create book reviews, book covers, and videos related to the material. Unlike AADL, to which only residents can contribute, it would be good to have a digital library without regional or language barriers, so that anyone in the world can access reliable information.
In Social Q &A sites, you can ask questions that are difficult to find through a web search or ready references, for example "Why does the stomach make funny noises when we’re hungry?" and "How do stoplights sense a car?" You can ask for advice and local knowledge, like restaurant recommendations (Leibenluft, 2007), which you can’t really ask a librarian or teacher. The strengths of traditional education can also help the weaknesses of Social Q&As. For example, the difficulty of controlling contents in Social Q&As, such as same-question repetition and spam comments, could be solved by allowing users to report to a web moderator and flag inappropriate contents (Gazan, 2008). Also, librarians and teachers are more likely to teach you how to find reliable information than just to give you an answer. Yahoo! Answers is not only a Social Q&A but also social networking site where people have discussions and build online relationship. Social Q&As are less reliable than traditional education because the information is provided anonymously and even by non experts. Duguid explains that Social Q&A sites are based on peer production and the laws of quality: “Peer production projects constantly change. What is flawed today may be flawless tomorrow”. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of Yahoo! Answers, the web moderator creates features that prevent users from submitting an answer without citation of a reliable source.
References
Duguid, Paul (2006). Limits of Self-Organization: Peer Production and "Laws of QualityÓ. First Monday 11(10). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1405/1323
Leibenluft, Jacob (2007). A Librarian's Worst Nightmare: Yahoo! Answers, where 120 million users can be wrong. Slate, 7 December 2007. http://www.slate.com/id/2179393/fr/rss/
Gazan, Rich (2008). Social Annotations in Digital Library Collections. D-Lib 14(11/12). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november08/gazan/11gazan.html
Dempsey, Lorcan (2009). Always On: Libraries in a World of Permanent Connectivity. First Monday 14(1). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2291/2070
I think you identified the main strength of social Q & A sites -- you can ask obscure questions and often get an answer (though not always an accurate one), which engages and empowers users.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on how libraries could mimic Q & A sites and allow users to contribute information (not only consume it) make a lot of sense to me.
Interesting!
I like your comment about how libraries and schools don't just give a quick answer to a question - they also provide tips on how to find the information for yourself. A user who only uses Yahoo Answers will likely only EVER use Yahoo Answers because they find it easy, whether or not it is entirely reliable. They are also more likely to spread what they believe to be true by answering others. On the other hand, people who know where to find reliable information by combining traditional libraries with online sites can actually gain a fuller understanding of the topic.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, a user wants to how stoplights sense a car. They have no idea where to start looking for this in the library. A vague question like this might even be hard for a librarian to pinpoint at first, depending on their knowledge of the topic. An online Q&A site could provide quick answers - some of them reliable and some of them not, but in either case they could provide starting points to follow up searches. Looking up key words from the answers you get can lead to a library search for "traffic metal detectors" which will be much easier to find information on.
I really like the statement you made, "Also, librarians and teachers are more likely to teach you how to find reliable information than just to give you an answer." This is the reason that schools and libraries won't be entirely replaced by sites like Yahoo! Answers anytime soon. The answer will only get you so far and it is much more valuable to learn how to find the answer than to know it. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. (I couldn't find an author)" "I agree that citations would help greatly. Yahoo! Answers implements this feature, but it seems like it is up to the users to take that and decide for themselves if the information is then reliable. Yahoo! Answers does hold a great amount of value and I will continue to use it, but with caution.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of making traditional library services and web2.0 tools complemantary to each other. As you mentioned, Q&A sections are doing better in providing not-that-normal information, and also could provide answers to more than one users. Also, communicating online is a good way to store information online. I remember an article we read weeks before said that everything people do online can be traced, and I guess it is at least good in this case, where all these "Q&As" can be found.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a general consensus amongst us that more "open" resources like Yahoo Q&A can help augment information seeking with traditional resources like asking librarians or teachers for information. In this is a path for librarians to take, perhaps working in conjunction with Yahoo or companies like it, we can curtail misinformation while still allowing a multitude of users to contribute.
ReplyDeleteLots of good stuff to think about! Great post!
I think your idea that sites like Yahoo! Answers should have moderators to filter out clearly inappropriate or wrong content definitely makes sense, but it may be hard to implement in practice. Especially for questions where there is no straight answer, like your stomach example. Another possibility would be to have a group of some kind of "super-users", who provide well-researched answers, so in addition to everyone's opinion there is always one trustworthy source. That might be one way to combine some of the strengths of traditional reference with all the useful features of a Q&A site that you mentioned. Although this may be just as hard to implement as moderation, since there are so many questions and you'd have to pay people to actually provide good information.
ReplyDeleteAlso I really liked your example of the library that allows users to leave reviews. It's great to see that ta least some libraries are maybe beginning to see the usefulness of some of the features that make sites such as Yahoo! Answers so successful, and figuring out how to take advantage of them to provide better service to their users, without compromising any of the traditional strengths of library reference service.
You provided lots of good examples of how some libraries are adopting social computing tools to help their patrons interact with and across items ikn their collections. On another student's blog I addressed some of the challenges of expecting librarians to serve as online question answerers in the same way members of social Q&A sites do, and the short answer is that it simply isn't in their job descriptions--whether it should be or not is another question. And I appreciate your distinction between factual questions librarians might be best equipped answer as opposed to fun opinion-based questions designed to elicit conversation...but shouldn't librarians be allowed to have some fun too? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the Duguid article fits here; he's writing about a situation where individuals are consciously working together to craft a coherent whole, like a piece of software. In Social Q&A you might consider the members as working to create a collection of aggregated wisdom and opinion. Still, very informative post!