Internet-based library services for young people
Anybody can publish on the Internet
and flexible services encouraging participation
and interaction have become
popular, especially with young people.
If libraries are to continue to play an
important role in today’s information
society, they must keep pace with development
and learn from these popular
Internet services. But one should
be quite clear as to why any particular
service is of use and prepared to adapt
it to the individual library and its users.

Several surveys, including one carried
out in 2006, show that young people
are among those who make least use of
libraries, while at the same time being
among the most frequent and active
users of Internet services. One way to
make them more active library users
would be to introduce Internet services
already familiar to them.
Some libraries have attractive and userfriendly
websites designed with young
people in mind, but generally library
websites seem old-fashioned because
they simply present information to a
passive viewer. Libraries should to a
greater extent offer new services on
their websites in order to create a more
interactive and inclusive initiative
aimed at the younger generation. They
would benefit from taking advantage of
developments such as blogging, wikis,
social networking and digital reference
services in order to attract young
people.

Blogging

A blog can be a personal homepage in
diary form, a presentation of new
specialist material or a news and information
letter for an organisation or
institution. Library staff would benefit
greatly from being active bloggers.
Blogs can be used to distribute news,
present library material and advertise
special arrangements.

Publicising by means of blogs creates a
greater feeling of actuality and also
offers the possibility of channelling
subjects into thematically differing
blogs, such as one blog presenting new
books for young people, another pictures
and film from relevant library
arrangements and a third aimed at
librarians dealing with adolescent
library users on a daily basis.

The library should also assist in improving
the blogging abilities of young
visitors. This can be achieved by giving
advice on how to set up and publish a
blog and how to improve the quality of
the material, including what is regarded
as good ‘netiquette’, copyright
considerations and writing for the Internet.
Blogging offers libraries a
unique opportunity to achieve closer
contact with youngsters.

The commentary feature makes it possible
for everybody to voice an opinion
on what a library publishes, and young
people can be encouraged to publish
their own texts in the blogs. Writing
competitions or the creation of web
editing groups with different areas of
interest can help to give youngsters a
greater sense of ownership with regard
to the library’s homepages and can also
attract new users.

Wiki

Wikis are user-controlled information
databases, where anybody can edit the
text and add whatever they feel is relevant.
There are many ways wikis can be
used in a library context. A wiki can be
a collection of reviews of the library’s
books, offering the public reading tips
and advice. Wikis can function as manuals
to teach users how best to take
advantage of what the library has to
offer, including other Internet initiatives
such as blogging and digital reference
services. In different areas wikis
can also serve as knowledge databases
focusing either on narrower, local
matters or on general subjects, depending
on function and context. A good
example is a wiki which gathers information
on local history.

A wiki established in cooperation with
various educational institutions is
certain to create sufficient content to be
of interest to the general public. Collaboration
with schools would ensure
that the majority of students are made
aware of the library’s range of services.
Experience shows that the quality of
the material published on wikis by
young people is better than their previous
efforts at writing. The excitement
of tackling the act of writing in a new
way has a positive effect. There is also
evidence to suggest a strong motivation
in the knowledge that the texts are
being read by a real, live public.

Digital reference services

Digital reference services have gradually
become quite common. They
are often voluntary initiatives where
several libraries cooperate to answer
questions by chat, e-mail and sms. In
both Norway and Sweden services of
this type are available under the title of
‘Ask the Library’ and have become very
popular among children and young
people.

Reference services based on chat rooms
work particularly well with youngsters,
since this form of communication is
already familiar to them through Instant
Messaging (IM). IM is a way for
two or more people to converse via the
Internet. The conversation takes place
in real time, making use of a client
programme, such as Windows Live
Messenger, Yahoo Messenger or AOL
Instant Messenger. Communication by
IM has rapidly become one of the most
popular forms of contact among the
younger generation. It should therefore
be just as natural for a library to be
accessible through IM as by e-mail.

IM is easy to work with and requires a
minimum of training for newcomers,
be they librarians or library users. It is
also completely free. IM can be locally
oriented and used to answer concrete
questions about library services and
collections, whereas digital reference
services are better suited to answering
questions on general subjects. Since
most young people are already familiar
with the technology, Instant Messaging
has the potential to be widely used and
can consequently help to lower the
threshold between them and the library.

Social networking

Social networking on the Internet consists
of meeting places where one can
create a profile, setting out information
about oneself and often adding one’s
own films, music, pictures, etc. It is
possible to exchange messages and to
comment on the profiles of others.
Some of the most popular networks,
such as MySpace and YouTube have
millions of users.

Libraries could take advantage of social
networking to promote themselves and
their services. MySpace is suitable for
posting news and obtaining feedback,
while YouTube could be used to show
films of library arrangements. Libraries
can also set up their own social networks.
Reaktor is a Norwegian site
operated by the Deichman Library,
where it is possible to publish homemade
films, photographs, animation,
music, comic strips, illustrations and
texts. In this way social networking
becomes a tool which the library can
use to encourage cooperation and creativity
among young people.

A world of possibilities

In addition to all the above and in order
to make their websites more attractive
to young people, libraries can also
make use of podcasting, folksonomies,
(systems where users themselves determine
subject classification) and video
diaries. They should, however, not aim
to adopt all the new, popular services
on the Internet simply to prove that
they can ‘move with the times’.What
they need is a clear vision as to why
they choose to take into use any of
these services and be prepared to adapt
it to the individual library and its users.

Examples

Blogs:

Barn og bibliotek: http://www.bibliotek
barn.blogspot.com/
Stuff for Teens: http://www.bartles
ville.lib.ok.us/blog/teens/

Wiki:

The Butler University Libraries’
Reference Wiki:
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/butler
wikiref/

Reference services:

Biblioteksvar: www.biblioteksvar.no
Spørg Olivia: www.sporgolivia.dk
Fråga biblioteket: http://www.eref.se/

Social networking:

Hennepin County Library on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/hennepin
countylibrary

Reaktor: http://www.minreaktor.no/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com

This article is based on a bachelor thesis Library
2.0 – What social aspects of Web 2.0 can libraries
put into use in order to make their web-sites more
interactive and attractive to young people? (Oslo
University College, Faculty of Journalism,
Library and Information Science, 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/yp43mp

Frank Robert Nybråten
Bachelor of Library and Information Science
franknybraten@gmail.com

Jonas Svartberg Arntzen
Bachelor of Library and Information Science
IT-librarian, Drammen Public Library
jonas@hoyfilm.com

Translated by Eric Deverill