Collaborative Information Systems and Reference Service with Jessamyn West

EI Program Calendar Audio Conference Friday, May 30, 2008 2:00 pm ET One Hour Member: $54.00 Non-Member: $74.00 Using the hive mind to answer questions How do people working together answer questions as well as or better than a reference librarian? Collaboratively, and on-line. Jessamyn West will discuss the phenomenon of on-line Question and Answer sites where individuals can get their questions answered by asking others, not necessarily information professionals. We'll look at the upsides and downsides to collaborative reference projects and investigate how libraries may be able to make use of these same tools. Who Should Participate: Information staff who are interested in using on-line tools for traditional reference. Library staff who work with young and/or heavy on-line user populations. Those with an interest in the social Web and the Internet. The Key Benefits For Participants: an overview of some popular and effective collaborative information systems a good news/bad news assessment of this approach by an expert in the field some decent avenues for further exploration and an overview of a library-oriented approach to this same model Key Tags: collaborative information, blogs, folksonomies, hive mind, on-line reference, 24/7 ref, reference tools, wisdom of crowds Method of Delivery: Audio Conference with visual aids. Jessamyn West Jessamyn West is a community technology librarian and a moderator of the massive group blog MetaFilter.com / Ask.Metafilter.com. She lives in a rural area of Central Vermont where she teaches basic computer skills to novices including seniors and people with disabilities. She assists tiny libraries with technology planning and implementation, helping them with wifi and Web sites and making sense of their systems. She maintains an on-line presence at jessamyn.com and librarian.net and has had her address and phone number on the Internet for a decade. Her favorite color is orange. Developed for the Education Institute by the British Columbia Library Association Convenor: Jamie Anderson