A survey conducted in July 2009 showed that 441 representatives from governmental, non-profit, profit and academic organisations had used social media tools to form their professional learning networks, aiming to improve communication channels with staff and customers. (Professional learning networks have allowed staff and customers to share knowledge with each other and learn from one another.)
The results showed that:
39% used social media sites to communicate between staff and customers.
49% were within the library science field.
48% used social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace) in the workplace.
27% used blogs which gave an overlap since MySpace, has a blogging feature.
This proved that these social media sites were a way for librarians, as Li and Bernoff, authors of "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies", stated, to 'get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations' (2008, p.9).
Librarians customising SharePoint
To use SharePoint for collaborating, capturing and organising 'corporate' knowledge (activities, ideas and documents), librarians need to understand how to program SharePoint without coding. Results from a 2010 survey on the usage of SharePoint from within the library, found that the survey participants' understanding of this concept was through the words 'customisation' and 'social media tools'. SharePoint is a platform that contains Web 2.0 features, such as wikis, surveys, discussion boards and dashboards, which can be embedded within a website automatically as web parts. This allows the librarian to 'customise' (change) their functions. This survey also recognised participants who were librarians with programming knowledge (for example, SQL, C++ and JavaScript languages), and were responsible for the IT Department.
The majority of the librarians not in the IT Department would not become a programmer using SharePoint but instead a 'customiser' of their site as this would allow them to program the site without coding. The technology of 'programming without coding' (http://doublesvsoop.sourceforge.net/) does not involve taking SharePoint 'out of the box' and installing it on the organisation's server, it means using:
pre-defined templates of the web parts and plugging them into appropriate places within the SharePoint site.
designer software such as SharePoint Designer 2007 and other types of web authoring tools (e.g. Dreamweaver).
'wizards' which guide the librarian through interactive web pages that produce a web part with the desired functionality for a library.
Here are all of the web parts that a librarian could use for 'programming without coding'.
To get started, the following must happen:
The IT department takes SharePoint 'out of the box' and installs it on the organisation's server. They set up the main SharePoint site for the organisation with appropriate permission levels for staff chosen from the list below.
If 'Design' or 'Full Control' permissions are assigned, the IT department will only allow access to that individual's own SharePoint site otherwise the user could accidentally re-design the organisation's site which would have serious repercussions.
To demonstrate 'programming without code' I will take you through some of the results of a survey between 8 and 25 March 2010, about the usage of SharePoint in libraries.
The Results: which library-type environments are using SharePoint
The survey found out that SharePoint was being used within library-type environments in government agencies (state and federal), educational institutions (University libraries), associations (non-profit/profit), private organisations (hospitals, law firms, financial services, museums). It was usually bought by senior management and configured by the IT department. The main SharePoint site for the organisation (or Portal) would contain links to publicly (all staff) viewable workspaces that could help librarians and other co-workers see the internal workings of the organisation (or 'enterprise').
The problem with this implementation was that the web parts used were designed by the IT department from senior management's understanding of what SharePoint can do, without talking to the actual users (librarians and other staff). This created confusion as to why the SharePoint site existed because the staff did not know what they could do with it. Librarians searched for training but found it to be too general for library management needs.
The participants of the survey spanned 17 states and three countries with a response rate of 34%. They were all dealing with incompatibility issues with library management systems already in place. Many came up with the solution to contact a vendor for help. Sydneyplus and Inmagic have created web parts to connect SharePoint with backend databases, for example SQL Server or MySQL Server. However major concerns are the money required and the time needed for the IT department to work in partnership with a vendor when implementing this solution. If you have the patience, money and an IT department that could dedicate time to this project, it could be well worth it. If you do not then you may want to try to work with the IT department for a better solution with your 'customisation ideas.
The web parts from the vendors seemed to add to the search engine of Windows Shared Services (WSS 3.0). One librarian found conflict when trying to implement the vendor web parts from within SharePoint to use the Extended Search Services which, when enabled and properly configured, can improve search results. An experienced IT Department could bypass the problem but documentation would be essential to ensure that any new members of IT staff understood the problem.
The survey also showed that some of the survey participants were librarians who were also in control of the IT department. This is a VERY big factor to take note of because these librarians would have the ability to be more than a 'customiser'. They could also be coding programs to create very specialised web parts through SQL, Java Script and C++ programming languages and could, for example, integrate Inmagic's DB/Textworks to work from within SharePoint WSS (the basic SharePoint).
The Results: usage of SharePoint by librarians
The majority of the survey participants used SharePoint from within an intranet. Only 7% of the participants asked their IT Department to create a public view of the library catalogue holdings through an extranet which only allowed searching and viewing document records.
While all survey participants asked to be able to customise SharePoint, the majority of the librarians who responded stated that they would not be able to find enough time to learn which web parts could help them with their library management tasks. 2% of the survey participants found time to create their own training manuals that centred on their understanding of which web parts could help with library management.
All of the participants would prefer a ready-made integrated library system but they still wanted the ability to 'customise' the fields, menus and reports when they had the time. From the states that participated, only 6% tried to combine SharePoint with Inmagic's integrated library systems, while 2% were successful in the implementation of an Inmagic DB/Textworks-SharePoint combination.
The library-type environments to mandate that SharePoint should be used were government agencies and private organisations. This was due to management not understanding that SharePoint had to be adjusted by the IT department with librarian input. 'One size would not fit all' libraries so setting up SharePoint directly 'out of the box' would not work. Without librarian input, the IT department that was not composed of librarians generated hundreds of information silos without any relationships to each other.
The chart below shows the various web parts used to get certain assignments completed for library-type environments. No participants had a SharePoint site that combined acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, serials and the OPAC. Each participant created their own SharePoint site covering one aspect of library management. One university library created a Reference Tracker but it was using a web part to allow a MS Access Database to function within the SharePoint site.
Conclusion
When I first created a SharePoint site for a non-profit association, I created an integrated library system. It did contain the various web parts as shown in the chart below but, over a two year period, I was able to transfer the library collection's information from Inmagic's DB/Textworks to Windows Shared Services 2.0 and then 3.0. The search engine could perform the full-text searching and metadata searching (tags and content-types). I decided on having one system to maintain rather than two. If you want to maintain a separate database of the library collection through SharePoint, make sure that your integrated library system is on your server. You will need to work with your IT Department and simply link to DB/Text works using SharePoint's Business Data Catalog, which 2 % of the participants of the survey had successfully done.
Bibliography
Li, C., and J. Bernoff. "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies", Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2008
Weldon, L. "SharePoint Without Coding: My Notes for Embedding the Librarian", College Park: Lorette S.J. Weldon, 2010, pgs. 93-95: http://digbig.com/5bcden
Lorette Weldon has had over 15 years of experience being a certified IT Librarian (Master's of Library Science (MLS) and BS (Information Systems Management)). She is currently a researcher and instructor in methods of working smarter for business professionals in the private, public, non-profit and government sectors. She has spoken at conferences and has written books and articles about how SharePoint and Google can help with library management. She is the author of "SharePoint Without Coding: My Notes for Embedding the Librarian" which is based on a 2-year study in the corporate sector. She is also the co-author of "Practices for Government Libraries 2010: The New Face of Value" published by Lexis-Nexis at http://micurl.com/tGtwFA and Book Editor of " The Park Memory Challenge: A Method to Stay Mentally Sharp" which is available through Amazon.
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