Social Software and Libraries (IM, RSS, Blogs, Wikis, Folksonomies, Social Bookmarking and more)

Date: December 12, 2006
Location: West Chester University Graduate Business Center
Time: 12:30pm - 4:00pm

In this presentation Edward Corrado and Jim Robertson will discuss social software and what implications it has for libraries. Clay Shirky, who is largely credited with creating the term, defines social software as software that supports group interaction. Some examples of social software include instant messaging, RSS, blogs, wikis, folksonomies (tagging), photo sharing, social bookmarking, and more. The presentation will start with an overview of some of these social software technologies and their applications in libraries will be provided. After the overview Corrado and Robertson will discuss the current and future implications of social software for librarians, library systems, and libraries in general.

Edward M. Corrado is Systems Librarian at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ where he is responsible for the Integrated Library System and other library technology. Corrado has presented at various library-oriented workshops and has recently authored articles for Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship and Computers in Libraries.

Jim Robertson has been a librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) since 1992. For the last five years, he was the Assistant University Librarian and responsible for much of the library's technology initiatives. Jim has presented his work at conferences in the New Jersey area and nationally.