Developing your web presence: the librarian’s guide

Matt Lingard, Jane Secker, LSE Centre for Learning Technology23rd November 2010Manchester Metropolitan University

http://tinyurl.com/CSGILpresence

Aims of course

• Understand your web presence & its importance• Consider institutional vs personal vs social web

presence• Highlight tools for developing your web presence• Understand need to write for the web• Provide knowledge for running a training session

on web presence

Session Outline• 10.30 Introductions & overview• 10.50 Mapping your own and others’ web presence• 11.50 Google tips• 12.00 Web presence: institutional• 12.30 Web presence: personal & professional activities• 13.00 Lunch• 13.45 Web presence presentation: personal & social• 14.15 Creating an action plan• 14.30 Writing for the web• 14.50 Running web presence training: tips and issues to consider• 15.20 Round up and questions• 15.30 Close

Why?

• Showcase• You!• Your work

• Build professional network• Reach wider audience• Expected?

Biography

Research

Teaching

Conferences

Googling ‘Jane Secker’

• What do we find?• Which pages are top of the list and why?

• Activity• Groups of 3• Find out as much as possible about 1 of your group• 10-mins

Google personalisation• Can create a personal Google home page with

short cuts to useful links and news feeds• If signed in, Google behaves differently as it

learns about you!

• Google behaves differently depending on version

• And where you are located in the world

• Google alerts

Your web presence• Institutional • Professional activities• Personal• Social Networks / Social Media

Jane’s institutional presence

• LSE Experts pages• Includes my recent research

• LSE Research Online for publications• Research appears in Google Scholar• But can also appear on other pages

• LSE website • CLT department page• LSE Library web page

Your institutional presence

• Repositories• for research and for your teaching materials• Key advantages are often have RSS feeds so can

generate dynamic list• May be policy about contributions from library staff

• Departmental web pages• Allow you to create a professional profile• Usually focused specifically on your job

Activity – in groups

• How do you appear on your official institutional pages?

• Can you do anything to improve these pages?• Are you free to edit them?

• Can you deposit material in an institutional repository and do you?

• Feedback good practice

Web presence: professional activities• Check your profile on other websites that matter• Membership of professional groups e.g. CILIP

groups• Committee membership• Mentoring• Conference websites• Journal editorial boards

Personal Websites

• Why?• Identity – personal!• A home• Control: content, design, updating• Conversational

• How?• Traditional vs web-based authoring• Website vs blog• Institutional vs external hosting• Domain names

Social…

Networking Media

Social Networking

• Purpose?• Relationships• Public / private• Security

Social Media

• YouTube (videos)• Flickr (photos and videos)• Slideshare (Presentations)• LibraryThing (Books)

• Feeding & Embedding

• Social citation tools such as Mendeley

Discussion and plan of action• Where am I?

• Is my profile up to date?

• Is it connected?

• Where should I be?• Actions

Writing for the Web

1. Audience & their purpose2. Impatient scanners not readers

• Important stuff first• Structure & emphasis• Eliminate redundancy• Mind your language

F-Shaped Reading Pattern

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Journalists’ Inverted Pyramid“Above the fold”

Layout

• Headings• Sub-headings

• Short paragraphs• Lists – numbered or bulleted• Start with information-carrying words

Emphasis & Links

• Emphasis• CAPITALS Bold Italics Underline Colour

• LinksXClick here to read my case study

XRead my latest case study here

Case study

Language

• Use plain language• Avoid jargon & expand acronyms• Avoid clichés, limit similes & metaphors

• Limit humour / sarcasm• International language

Removing Redundancy

Setting up your website involves co-operative collaboration between the various members of a team such as the designer and the commissioner, for example. The method is a simple one.

29 words

Setting up your website involves collaboration between team members, such as the designer and the commissioner. The method is simple.

20 words

Running training on web presence

• What worked from today’s session?• What do you need to change?

• Who are your audience?• What format of session and for how long?• What challenges will it present?• What additional support might you need to offer

to complement this course?• Any technical issues • Any other issues?

Tips• Find out lots about institutional policies on

• IPR / copyright issues• use of social media / networking• Use of institutional repository• Use of web 2.0 tools

• Try Googling participants beforehand• Encourage lots of discussion and activities• Ask delegates to bring laptops if they have them

to avoid need to use a computer room• Talk to staff in other departments: e-learning, IT

Training, educational developers

Questions?

• Jane Secker j.secker@lse.ac.uk • Matt Lingard m.j.lingard@lse.ac.uk

• Links: http://tinyurl.com/CSGILpresence