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Permalink Reply by Ellen Druda on May 26, 2007 at 9:40am

It's a tough one. Some people are into it and some are not, and some will get on board later. You just can't push it. If it looks like you are having fun with just a few, then maybe others will want to participate. At first I was the only one writing in the blog, but now there are 3 or 4 of us posting regularly.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kosovsky on May 29, 2007 at 6:41pm

I've written elsewhere (in the non-group section) about this issue, which, to my mind, is a burning one at my heavily bureaucratic institution.

Don't focus on the technology but on the needs. I think the only a handful of us I got my coworkers to accept a wiki was to first convince them of its utility. I'm currently reading the book Wikinomics (which has an accompanying website) and it suggests some of the trends occuring in the world - collaboration among them. If you can convince your staff of the need and benefits of greater collaboration, they'll eventually want to use tools that achieve that. Communication is another issue - if all staff want to be informed, they'll want tools to achieve that. That goes hand in hand with a desire for change - instead of one person "owning" a procedure or document, some or the entire staff chooses to "own" procedures and documentation within the workplace.

So first make everyone recognize the need - then the desire for tools will follow.

Permalink Reply by Melissa Shepherd on June 1, 2007 at 4:54pm

This looks like it is related to swashford's discussion topic: http://library20.ning.com/group/publib20/forum/topic/show?id=515108... where I posted a reply...I just finished Wikinomics recently, and it is a huge leap in any institution, especially one that may be micromanaged from the top down. The only way it will work is to give the power to the peers.

Permalink Reply by Laura Berdichevsky on April 17, 2009 at 9:42am

Yeah, web 2.0 can be kind of tricky because like Ellen said some people get really into it and others don't. A pretty cool web 2.0 tool librarians and their patrons seem to be using these days is healthfinder.gov. I've heard their flash tutorial for librarians is pretty helpful (http://www.healthfinder.gov/tutorial/default.asp#librarian) and they're also on Twitter @healthfinder.

Permalink Reply by Ellen Forsyth on November 27, 2009 at 11:16pm

Part of building interest is by story telling, giving examples of how others are using these tools, showing them how they can use them too. I think that accounts for the strong support of learning 2.0. Plus there has to be a 'what's in it for me' for many staff. Not everyone is excited by learning new things (sadly), for some they really have to see how this tool fits for them, which brings the idea of story telling and show and tell, again and again.

The tool also has to make a difference, and if it is a collaborative tool, working with others on the planning stage is critical. It has to be a collaboration all the way along. So talk with the staff, show them examples of collaborative wikis (like http://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/index.php/Reference_excellence or http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/), and talk with them about how these tools can work in the context you have planned for them. You may even have to set up a demo wiki for people to play with (like http://nswlearning2.pbworks.com/FrontPage) to help people understand better. Often people have heard of wikis, but really don't understand the range of options they can present.

Permalink Reply by Susan Chandler on March 8, 2010 at 1:27pm

Last summer, I had my first experience with a wiki while working on a committee with librarians from other organizations. It didn't make a lot of sense to me to go to the wiki when I was getting the same info via emails. Since then, I have joined a couple more committees that use wikis and even started a wiki for a non-librarian committee. The members are all retired teachers and they have found using the wiki to be more complicated than just sending email.
I think the key to adopting new technology is for it to "make sense" or fill a need and for some of us, that takes more than one attempt!
My library does not make use of wikis--I'm hoping to introduce it and other 2.0 tools to them.
Susan

Permalink Reply by Melvyn Yabut on October 30, 2011 at 12:55pm

You touched on one of the challenges getting an organization to come on board in adopting new technology. People especially those that work in public libraries are creatures of habit. We love our routines and will resist embracing a new tool or way of doing things if it is too complicated. I for one have advocated for wikis as a means to communicate and preserve institutional knowledge, but at the same time I cannot deny the ease of shooting an email to pass along information.

Permalink Reply by Melvyn Yabut on October 30, 2011 at 1:21pm

I think two important factors would be getting library management and key stakeholders in every department onboard in adopting the new technology and doing a lot of small group targeted hands on training.

In my experience any new technology or ways of doing things die stillborn, if the managers themselves are not keen on using it. Staff are in tune to the verbal and nonverbal cues managers and key personnel gives out in such matters. If they hear that so and so manager does not really think that it is useful or see that support is mere lip service (i.e. no concrete support like allowing staff to train and learn it) they will not waste their time on a tool that might get shelved after a couple of months.

Another factor that will help is doing several small sessions of targeted hands on training rather doing a one session fits all. I have seen training conducted during an all-staff meeting wherein half of the audience are lost in following it or don't care enough to listen because the information displayed applies only to a specific workgroup. Smaller sessions in my mind is more effective and addresses the needs of a workgroup and gets staff excited on how easy the new tool is and how they can use it in their work.

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