REVIEW: User Collaboration in websites by Judith Pearce

This paper was presented by Dr Judith Pearce at the biennial ARLIS/ANZ Conference in 2006. She worked at the National Library of Australia (NLA) for many years and was recognised within the library community as a proponent of online services. The paper talks about Web 2.0 technologies, and in particular two services offered by the National Library - PictureAustralia and Australia Dancing.

This review will look at the important issues raised in the paper and also whether this technology benefits NLA users and is relevant to the current environment in which the library operates. I found this an interesting article, which clearly explained the projects underway at NLA and their ideas on Web 2.0.

This paper begins by clearly articulating what it is that makes a service Web 2.0 and identifying characteristics that are common to all of these services. A massive data repository, user particpation and programmable interfaces are highlighted as common features of such services. NLA has identified the need to explore these new technologies as a way of providing a better service and remaing relevant in today's world.

Pearce first talks about PictureAustralia’s flickr Project, which allows users to upload their images to one of the PictureAustralia goups on flickr. This has led to an increase in visibility of PictureAustralia as a result of this project, with many contemporary images complementing those old ones in the collection. However there have also been challenges regarding the tagging and findability of images within the repository, which will only increase in the future.

Pearce also talks about another service offered by the National Library called Australia Dancing, which is a directory of current and historical resources about dance in Australia. This website uses Wiki software to allow anyone to register and contribute to it, with simple rules to follow. As it is in its beginning stages Pearce gives just a brief overview of it, but nonetheless it shows that the National Library is keen to use Web 2.0 technologies and keep abreast of technological changes.

The technology being used by NLA is very relevant to the world in which today’s libraries operate and many make use of such technology. For example the library at Mosman in New South Wales uses flickr to post images to promote and share events at their library, as well as promoting photos from their local studies collection. As Miller [1] in his article says

Libraries should be seizing every opportunity to challenge these perceptions, and to push their genuinely valuable content, services and expertise out to places where people might stand to benefit from them; places where a user would rarely consider drawing upon a library for support.

It seems that the National Library is in agreement with this statement. As the title of the paper suggests, the library has been thinking about user needs and believe that this semi-controlled collaboration is the way forward. Through flickr and wiki software the library is opening up the collections held at different institutions to a wider audience, which benefits everyone. Pearce briefly touches on the need for policing such services, but does not talk much about the time and effort that is required to constantly assess and ensure that the information is accurate. It is a real concern that the reputation of the library, as the place to go for accurate information may suffer.

Overall this was a very interesting article to read and to discover that the National Library is not being left behind when it comes to these new technologies.

If you want to read the article reviewed, click here.

[1] Miller, P. (2005). Web 2.o: Building the New Library. Ariadne, 45. Retrieved on September 1, 2009 from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue45/miller