SLIS 2.0: UA SLIS-ers’ Presence on the Collaborative Web by Melissa Fortson
PAGE 2 ALA STUDENT VOICE
ALA TechSource blogger Michael Stevens tells LIS practitioners that we must be aware of tools like RSS, blogs, wikis, tagging,
bookmarking, and other Web applications, “learn to use them, and seriously examine how they might improve or change services
we provide.” Here, SLIS students, alumni, and friends share how they use these technologies to enhance their learning and
professional work- and have fun, too. UA SLIS can be found on social networking sites MySpace and Facebook (URLs follow
article). Several SLISers mentioned belonging to LIS-related Facebook groups: Alabama Library Association, Alabama SLIS
Alum, American Library Association Members, American Library Association Student Chapters, Library 2.0 Interest Group,
Librarians and Facebook and NextGen Librarians were most frequently mentioned.
Suhua Fan, Assistant Professor & Catalog Librarian with the UA Libraries, reports that she has “a research project about web 2.0
and UA community in process.” Suhua’s 2008 LITA National Forum Poster Session presentation, “A Study of User Information
Searching Behaviors at the University of Alabama Community,” describes how understanding user searching behavior assists the
university libraries’ implementation of search tools and social software. Findings from a Spring 2008 research survey and computer
stream recording indicate “the most often-used social networking tools include: Facebook, Mobile texting, YouTube, and
internet forums.” Additional information about Suhua’s research interests may be found on her website, along with lots of library-
related resources.
SAC President Freddy Hudson and I have enjoyed comparing bookshelves on Shelfari, a “social network for people who love
books.” Shelfari and other social cataloging sites, such as LibraryThing, allow users to create and share personal catalogs and
book lists. LibraryThing is one of several applications Tiffany Norris (SLIS ’05) uses in her personal and professional lives:
“LibraryThing and Delicious are somewhat more for personal use; although, my personal interests also tend to run along literary/
library …I'll have tags like "libraries" and "literary" on those sites.”
Rhonna Hargett, a first-year DE Cohort member working in reference at Manhattan Public Library in Manhattan, KS, shares
that the library offers a reader's advisory blog and a Facebook page. The blog attracts about 250 readers a month and the Facebook
group allows the library to “post events and send updates to our fans on what is coming up.”
Rachel Dobson, part-time SLIS student and full-time Visual Resources Curator with the UA Department of Art & Art History,
started Delicious and Flickr accounts for her department; these and other web-based departmental resources are listed below.
Rachel also uses these tools in her SLIS-related academic research, and, like Tiffanny and Rhonna, blogs on Blogger/Blogspot.
Do you 2.0? If so, check out the Web-based resources and communities listed below. These links are also tagged on Delicious
as uaslis2.0 .

“Considering All Things Literary” (Tiffany Norris’s blog, which includes book reviews and links to library and literary interests): http://
tiffanynorris.blogspot.com
Delicious: http://delicious.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/
“Little Apple Bookworm” (Manhattan Public Library): http://littleapplebookworm.blogspot.com/
Shelfari : http://www.shelfari.com/
SLIS MySpace profile: http://www.myspace.com/111764731
Suhua Fan’s LITA poster session: http://www.bama.ua.edu/~sfan/index_files/Page932.htm
UA Department of Art & Art History resources :
http://www.as.ua.edu/art/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uaart/
http://www.as.ua.edu/art/loupe.html
http://del.icio.us/Resources4UAArt
Web2.0 for Librarians (ALA Tech Source blog):
http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2005/09/web-20-for-librarians.html