Recent meetings recap

Loryn, Heather and I met on April 6th from 7-9pm and again tonight, April 8th from 7-8:15pm to practice our presentation. We changed up the order of the slides, so our presentation order will go like this:
1. Heather--background on goodreads
2. Loryn--web tour of goodreads
3. Jessica--practical applications of goodreads for the teen librarian

Note:
Heather created the original slides.
Jessica edited the slides for final presentation.

See you Friday!

Jessica

Recent Meeting(s) Recap

Heather and I met on 3/25 and again on 3/31 at 7pm via elluminate to discuss our powerpoint presentation for goodreads.

Agenda items:
*Heather created the initial powerpoint slide presentation.
*Jessica will edit the slides for final presentation.
*Heather to set up elluminate practice session for all 3 of us on Monday, 4/6 from 7-9pm.
Important: All of us must prepare our portion of the presentation (know what we will say) in advance of the meeting on 4/6. That will be our first opportunity to run through the powerpoint in elluminate together, and we plan on doing this several times to get it down.

An additional elluminate practice tbd prior to the presentation on 4/10.

--Jessica

Power-Point

Hi Jessica and Loryn.

I know we are having an Elluminate session tonight, but I wanted to post some of my thoughts. I've started the power-point and I'll show you both tonight what I have done so far. But, I need both your comments to improve or make changes to it.

Jessica, I'll explain more tonight, but from you I need the names of the libraries you are looking at, so I can cut and paste pictures. Plus, I need an address of one of the libraries you plan to do a tour with, so I can upload the web address onto a power-point slide. So far, with an address I've been practicing with works directly from the power-point. However, when I put the goodreads' address, it doesn't work. It may not, so we'll have to work around that. The Facebook site works as well, and this is good, because it will cut down the time...

I finished all my back-ground research. I only put bullet points, but no real detail on the power-point, that way we wont be reading directly from the slides.

Talk to you both tonight.

Meeting Notes (2.17.09)

Heather, Loryn, and I held an elluminate meeting session on Wednesday, February 17th from 7 - 8:30pm to further our discussion about our social network bookmarking project.

*We shared our research and went through examples of different library sites (all linked to on earlier posts) to see how goodreads is applied to the library setting.
*Based on our research from the past couple of weeks and upon Heather's suggestion, we talked about dividing our presentation into the following three sections:

Goodreads and its application as a social network tool to the YA library
1. Background on goodreads.com. To include how it was developed, expanded, and further uses today (including YA). Brief tour of how it reads as an application/widget on Facebook. (Heather)
2. Present research on how goodreads is used at other libraries, with a focus on the YA library. Discuss 2-3 libraries and how they use it. Link to one and tour it during the presentation. Log in to goodreads to show how teen book groups can form, show what is popular/what works. Mention school library idea (student advisory council). (Jessica)
3. Web tour of goodreads. Show the class how the website works, and all of its applications/uses. (Loryn)

-We agreed to split up the sections above so that each name highlighted works on that section.

Next steps:
*Start to create presentation, build the copy and form thoughts as to how we will present our individual sections during the presentation.
*Loryn and Jessica will send Heather their copy for their sections by/on March 9th. Heather has offered to build one powerpoint document where all of our slides will be kept.
*Group decided to meet again on elluminate on Wednesday, March 11th from 7 - 8:30pm. Loryn to set up and moderate meeting. At this meeting, we will run through the powerpoint document, share with each other and get feedback. We can also try a run-through, if applicable!

Reminder!
April 10th is our presentation date. We will have 9 minutes total (3 minutes each).

Also, please make sure that any research done up to this point is posted on this blog. We can all read through and gather information for our sections that others may have already looked up and posted earlier on the blog.

Examples of goodreads YA groups

hi again,

I just wanted to post a few of the better discussion groups I found (related to teens) on goodreads. These had a solid number of members.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/7019.Brookline_Library_Teen_Book_Club

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/3966.The_Teen_Club
(same one as Loryn's?)

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1951.Team_Edward

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/9542.300_books_1_year
this one looks like it actually has teen members: the point is for teens/tweens to see if they can read 300 books in 1 year.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/13652.Teens_Read_Book_Club

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/7961.Guys_in_books_are_just_well_better_

-Jessica

Loryn's notes 2.18.09

(copied/pasted in by Jessica)
From Loryn:
Hi Ladies-

I'm not sure how to post a new blog on the Blogger Website. I was going to go in and post the links that I had found.These are the links to the ones that I thought would be helpful to look at:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2070.genre_X
This one is a book club for 20-30 year olds which is run by the Oak Park Public Library. It seems that Goodreads is used in order to facilitate extra information to the members as well as another place to chat about the books.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2096.San_Antonio_Public_Library
This next one is from the San Antonio Public Library. Their approach isn't specifically for a book club, but also to let members know what their librarians are reading. I think is a really interesting point. A lot patrons ask the question, "Have you read anything good lately?". Goodreads helps to answer that question.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/10224.Teen_Library_Club_TCPL_This last one is from the Tippecanoe County Public Library's teen book club. They use Goodreads to go over the book club books as well as help one another stay connected by what they are reading. One thing that I found about most of the Goodreads sites I looked at was that they aren't directly connected to the libraries website. Moreover, they are run only through Goodreads. This must mean that librarians know about goodreads and are spreading the word to patrons and bookclub members. I think that Goodreads is really great for libraries, but a lot of libraries don't know how to easily integrate it for the public to easily use. I had the YA librarian ask me today how our research was going. She wants to start using Goodreads for our Teen book club, but isn't sure if it will translate what she needs. The San Leandro Public Library is part of a Galley book program, we get new unreleased books from the publishers and the teens get to read them and then review them. Kelly was hoping that if she started a group on Goodreads, and was able to add the galley books, her members would be able to review the books right on there and rate them. This way, memebers could also see the books that are getting good ratings. I think this is a GREAT idea! I'm hoping it will work out for her, and maybe we can see about getting a link set up on our website or even a Wiki tool that shows what the popular books are. Her only worry is that teens aren't ready for this kind of social networking site, places like myspace and facebook revolve around the social aspects and Goodreads is a little more on the practical side.

Heather's update 2.17.09

Update from Heather (copied into blog by Jessica)

I was doing some research on goodreads and found a library that actually has a link to goodreads on their library web-page. I'm going to e-mail Professor Tash and make sure it would be okay to use a library outside of California, plus it doesn't specifically address teens. However, I looked through a lot of different library groups and didn't find any so far that had a direct link to their library. It's called Brentwood Library. I'm hoping to use that one as my library search.

Plus, I've been doing a lot of thinking about our presentation. I know we have an Elluminate session tomorrow night, but I wanted to write my thoughts anyway. If you have time to read this, then you can add what you think tomorrow. It seems like our presentation can be split into three sections which is perfect for us. The first part, would be the background. I wouldn't mind doing the first part. I would include the background of goodreads, purpose, and expansion. I'll explain more tomorrow night, but I was going to sign up for facebook, because goodreads expanded to facebook and myspace. I was going to show how that worked during that part of the presentation. The second part, would be to present the research from the libraries. And, one of you can do that part. We would provide all the information from our library page research. I was thinking with this part, the presenter would show the group section from goodreads, but start it from the libraries homepage. Third section, would be the actual introduction of the goodreads site. The presenter of this part would demonstrate how the home page works other than the group site.

We'll definitely have more time to talk about this stuff tomorrow night and talk about who wants to do what and stuff like that. I just wanted to get some thoughts down and gets up moving towards putting the presentation together. Talk to you both later...Heather

Jessica's Notes 2.17.09

Background on Goodreads.com and how it developed:

Founder: Otis Chandler, Dec. 2006
--Worked as software engineer at dating site, but wanted to develop a new social networking tool that he could use
--Chandler’s philosophy (from goodreads website): I’d rather get book recommendations from my friends (rather than random person, bestseller list). The internet is a great place to do this, as more people like to go online and use social networking sites.
--It’s fun and easy to start: You can see your friends’ bookshelves. Since people flock to the internet, it’s a great way to harness their reading interests and share them with others. Also, people are more likely to post their favorite books online vs. books that weren’t as good.

Add’l information compiled from goodreads.com
--currently 1.8 million unique goodreads members
--Helps publishers (with fewer print newspapers in the world) create and look out for innovative ways to attract publicity for their books)

Competitors:
Shelfari: October 2006, bought by Amazon.com in 2008.
Library Thing: created by Tim Spalding in Portland, ME. Free way to catalog books (up to 200, then it’s paid). May 2006


_____________
Uses of goodreads.com in the teen library/public library (teen services):

(Information compiled from teen librarians on the YALSA-BK list serv.)

This librarian adds the goodreads widget to her library’s teen services page:
http://laneteenzone.org/fairfield/

This librarian, Katie Spofford, Milford, NH, uses her personal goodreads account to filter YA book reviews to the library’s teen page:
http://wadleighya.blogspot.com/

Library media specialist Gwen Lehman at Larned High School in Kansas used goodreads with her teen student advisory council (7 students).
-Each teen has his/her own account, and they’ve all joined the group LHSTAG (private school discussion group, run by librarian). Key feedback from Gwen:

“When they signed up for goodreads, I helped them here in the library. We talked about the program, how much info. to put in their profile, accepting friends, etc. They even created their own screen name, which thrilled them to no end :-). As for computer access, they can access their accounts here at school. I also have them fill out an application for TAG Team and one of the questions relates to computer accessibility. So far, they all have access @ home, so this has not been an issue. I think they all like goodreads because they never search for a social network group like this before. When we first got started, they had never heard of LibraryThing or Shelfari. Personally, I chose goodreads because the format was easy to work with and I could access it at school (the filter did not block it). Shelfari is blocked and I didn't like the format of Library Thing, plus I could make a private group on goodread. The frequency of student use has improved, but I am still trying to find incentives for them to use it more often.”

She also says:
“My group does love to read, but they have been great at giving book suggestions and ideas to our more reluctant readers at school. It has been fun watching them blossom and feel more comfortable and confident in talking with their peers about books. I think part of this is due to the opportunity of sharing and writing reviews on goodread.”

Summary: the usage of goodreads among teen librarians is not completely widespread, and seems to depend on the individual librarian’s comfort with technology. Some of the more successful uses of goodreads seem to be using it for a teen book group (at school or the public library), and feeding goodreads book reviews to the library’s teen page.


Questions I have for the group:

--Thoughts on what the ethics are of using goodreads with teens? A couple librarians have pointed out that it’s a little weird to ask kids/teens to join and be their online “friend” on these sites. The school librarian has asked parents for their permission in advance, so they know to expect it.

Notes from Elluminate q&a session with Prof. Tash

Notes from Heather Johnson 2/3 (Jessica copied from blog "comments" section)

Hey girls...I went to the online session. Okay, this is what he is looking for-background on goodreads:

-how it was developed
-purpose of goodreads
-how it has expanded-
Then, we are to teach the class how libraries would use goodreads: (he suggested researching 2 to 3 libraries that use goodreads)

- Also:-how the libraries like it-what they do with it

Another group asked (they're doing myspace) if they could create their own myspace page demonstrating how a library would use myspace, he said, that was great and he advised incorporating things from different libraries who used myspace. Once we get our research down, we can then discuss how we want to put this together.

I was also thinking we could each research a different library, that way we each participated and then we can split up the other topics to research. I was wondering if I could also research how goodreads has expanded...is that ok with your girls? That leaves how it was developed and it's purpose. Then, we each answer the other questions according to the library we each research. He also suggested really practicing our presentation before, so we'll definitely have to set up a few elluminate session before hand.

Jessica- you already have your library to research, but I was wondering how did you find it?Thank you girls. I'll post this on the blog as well.

Good-night...Heather

First Meeting Notes (2.2.09)

Notes from Elluminate session 2/2 from 7-8pm
Moderator: Heather Johnson

Team: Young Adult at Heart for Goodreads.com
Members: Loryn Bold, Heather Johnson, Jessica Levy
emails: boldie03@aol.com; hmjirishwillow@att.net; jsouffle@yahoo.com

Discussion: how to work on our assignment--let's create a group on Goodreads.com that will be appealing to teens. Need to figure out how this would be used from a library's perspective.
We toured the goodreads.com website and talked about the assignment; many questions remain. **Can our assignment be that we create a young adult group on goodreads?

Action Items:
*Heather will attend 2/3 elluminate session with Professor Tash, and ask questions on behalf of our group.
*Each member will look up "young adult groups" on the group section of the goodreads site and research what existing groups have done to make their groups work and attract members. *Research the listings on the following pages:
Heather--pp1
Jessica--pp2
Loryn--pp3
*Jessica to ask YALSA listserv how/if they use goodreads in their libraries to attract interest of teens.
*Loryn to ask YA library staff how they use goodreads (i.e. how it's good for teen involvement in libraries and reading).
*Jessica to set up next group elluminate session on 2/18 at 7pm. We'll discuss the results of our research at that point and hopefully we'll have a better idea of the specifics of our assignment.
*Jessica to take group minutes/notes.