Books, Bytes
Blogs and Wikis
Wider Rationales for
UWF Libraries New
Technology Strategies
Ray Uzwyshyn, Ph.D., MLIS
Dept. of Digital and Learning Technologies
UWF Libraries, 2008-2009
Library Blog
Library Wiki
Library Weblog: Books and Bytes
Available from Homepage, Jan 2008
Wordpress 2.26 – PHP/MYSQL
Library Task Force Wiki
Internal, Staff Groups, July 2008
Wikimedia – PHP/MySQL
http://library.uwf.edu
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/library
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/tf-wiki1.12
What are Blogs and Wikis?
New Tools to Navigate, Share and Interact
with Information - Develop knowledgebases
Easily Publishable Online
Representations of
News or Domains of
Knowledge
Why do Weblogs and Wikis
matter?
• Next generation web tools
(evolutionary)
• Envision new, dynamic ways to
deliver and interact with information
• It’s where our users (students) are
• Collaboration possibilities have
evolved on the Web
• Enable opportunities for learning,
communication and knowledge
development
Advantages
Instant publishing to the Internet
cost little or nothing (open source)
Provide features that open interaction with
others
Empowering
allow new avenues for development of thoughts,
ideas and materialization of ideas

Exciting and Dangerous: instant feedback
regarding our services, announcements and
events
Wikis & Blogs Characterized as
Web 2.0 Information
Technology Tools
Participatory Media
Citizens’ Media
Disruptive Technologies
To Publish on the Web
Why are UWF Libraries exploring
Weblogs and Wikis?
• Keeps the library
technologically/ culturally
relevant
• Keep our digital information
space and infrastructure upto-date
• Meets the demographic of
changing student/faculty
needs
The Millennials (born 1980-2000)
Currently largest and most diverse
student generation in American history
39% of total population; 36% minority
Tech-embracing
Generation N
Collaborationoriented
Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennial Rising, Vintage, 2000
Millennial Have Online
Democratic Expectations
Not trapped in TV paradigm
Not interpellated in One Way
Epistemic systems.
Millennial expect Interaction
with Information
(Participatory Democracy)
Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennial Rising, Vintage, 2000
Web 2.0: User experience
• Information Expectations are
changing
– Change in the way users consume
information/ emphasis on interaction
– Subtle changes in technology lead
to larger effects
Information Seeking Among 10,000 Millennial
Pew Foundation Study, 2007
1)
60% The Web In a virtual
setting
2) 15% Google 95% Web
3) 12% Weblogs
4) 8% Specialized Websites,
Wikis
5) 2% From or in a group
6) 2% Cell, PDA, GPS (mobile to
a destination)
7) 0.5% From a book/print source
8) 0.3% In a classroom
9) 0.15% From a
teacher/professor
10) 0.15% At the library
reference desk
How can you best
find relevant
information?
Web 2.0: 1998-2008
Interactive Web: Explosion of Commenting
Information Sharing, Frank
public evaluation
75% of internet
users 15-35
regularly rate
persons,
organizations,
or
organizational
services online
Review By Peers, 1998-2008
Potential of Feedback
(2 way communication with Users,
Democratic Media, participatory
epistemology, participatory
democracy)
What are our patrons/students/faculty thinking?
Information Sharing and
Evaluation
81% of 15-35 year
olds regularly
comment on
weblogs
35% also post
daily on blogs,
wikis and social
networking sites
Content Creation by Age
100
Internet users
80
40
20
Percentage
60
Total population
0
Ages
12-17
Ages
18-29
Ages
30-38
Ages
39-48
Ages
49-60
Ages
61-69
Ages
70+
Accessing New Information
Content
79% of
internet
users 18-35
subscribe
at least 1
blog
Information Customization
Two thirds of 15-35 year old internet
users use RSS feeds
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/library
Share Information
Inform
HyperLink to Deeper Web
Resources
Permalink and Archive
Include Archives
(Searchable)
http://librarydigital
services.uwf.edu/l
ibrary/?p=55
Include unique URL for
each post (Permalink)
Save Useful Links
Subscribe
Characteristics of a Blog?
Frequently Updated Posts

1-2/week
5-6/month
Relatively Pithy Entries
Information Bytes Rather than
‘Sound Bites’
Death of Literacy - Birth of Digital/Visual/Information/Media Literacy
Brief Focused Announcements /
Articles
• 2-5 Paragraphs/Entry, Brief Focused with links and
images
Emphasis on Current Information
Newer Entries
Older Entries
Weblog Organization
Chronological
By Date
Thematic
By Category
Domains of Knowledge
Sophistication/Scalability is Possible
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/anniversary/
40th Anniversary Digital Image Archive as Reverse Engineered Weblog
Wikis
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/tf-wiki-1.12
Paradigmatic Shift of Knowledge
Production & Dissemination
Knowledge
Collaboration
Tools
Open
Editable
Versioning
Historical
Progression
of Encyclopedia
Epistemic
Trajectories
Shifting Models of
Scholarly Production
http://www.wikipedia.org/
Getting Started by Contributing
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/tf-wiki-1.12
Wikis as Workgroup
Collaboration/ Learning Tool
Specific
Domains of
Knowledge
Universe of
Knowledge
Developing, Sharing, Collaborating on Documents
Everything in A Wiki is Open
Editable and Reeditable
Simpler
Nomenclature
(little coding
experience needed)
Radically Open
Architecture
Organic
Morphology
Universe of
Knowledge
Versioning Histories
New
Taxonomies of
Knowledge
Nuanced Knowledge Domains
Authors, Revisions, Reasons, Versions
Basic Definition
Interactivity
Media Specificity, Disruptive Technology, Paradigm Shift
New Tools Impact to Prevailing Models :
Teaching,
Scholarly Infrastructures,
Scholarly Production
Knowledge Production
Uncharted Territory, Unexploited, Unexplored
Questions?
Library Task Force Wiki
Library Weblog: Books and Bytes
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/tf-wiki-1.12
http://library.uwf.edu
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/library
Presentation
UWF 40th Anniversary Digital Image Library
http://library.uwf.edu/weblogwikipresentation.ppt
http://librarydigitalservices.uwf.edu/anniversary/
Project Briefing: D-Lib Sept/Oct 08: http://www.dlib.org
Ray Uzwyshyn, Ph.D., MLIS
Head, Digital and Learning Technologies
UWF Libraries, ruzwyshyn@uwf.edu
(850)474-2448