Hi everyone!
Woohoo, widgets! Widgets are spectacularly useful. They're sort like the kid from the popular group that you invite to your party for status. With a widget, you can take information from one site (like your Twitter account, Facebook account, chat, or something else random), and place it in a different site. We actually already did this when we looked at Meebo, and I embedded the MeeboMe widget on the blog. [--->]
I've also got a counter on here, and a link to follow me on Twitter @Archivisitation.
From Twitter, you can install a widget that will display your most recent Tweets. This can be added to a site or to Facebook. It's a great way to get more of your repository's networking directly accessible from a single location (your site, Facebook page, etc.). Also from Twitter, you can add a widget that will search Tweets, one that will display your favorite Tweets, or one that will display your favorite followers. Any of these would be helpful for engaging folks into the online community of the repository. From Facebook, you can add a Profile Badge or a Page Badge to your site, and this will let people know that you have a presence on Facebook. It's definitely more noticeable than a link. If your repository is on LibraryThing, or your repository is part of a library that is, you can add a LibraryThing account widget that will display your favorite books, or a particular collection, or books with reviews. This widget would be a great way to get those staff recommendations out of the stacks and into your online community. The LibraryThing widget is also customizable. This 3jam widget allows users to send a message to a mobile account, without exposing the phone number. It could be helpful if your repository does text/SMS reference. This widget from del.icio.us allows you to display your new links-- which could connect users with related collections, other repositories, information about your or other archives, etc. Google has all sorts of widgets/"web elements" that can be tacked onto a site. The Maps widget could be helpful for pointing out the origination of a collection or document. ...And there are many more widget suggestions on Stan Shroeder's article, recommended by 23 Things.
These are another way to engage users and to make the archives visible. An invisible archives falls quickly by the wayside, and this technology is usually free, except for the cost of labor and upkeep. If your repository has the time and means (or, okay, realistically, can make the time or means), then networking can reap real, tangible benefits for your repository, staff, and patrons.
Showing posts with label Meebo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meebo. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thing 2: Architalk the MeeboMe
Adventures in Meebo!
It took me a few tries to get the widget going in Blogger, but there she is. -----> [sidebar]
This Meebo Widget (called "MeeboMe") can be embedded here in my Blog, somewhere else in your Blog, or on a web page. There is also a mobile edition! Pretty neat. I have a lot of IM experience but have never used Meebo. It's a pretty amazing tool-- especially for an institution (historical society, library, company) with multiple chat IDs on different platforms. From this one program, administrators can link a Facebook chat, a Google Talk, an AIM, a Yahoo!, a Windows Live, A Myspace, an ICQ, A Jabber, a Fixster, and about 40 more platforms that I have never even heard of. BAM! This is a great way to be able to connect to most users across all the most popular platforms that they might be running. I made a joke about archives-on-archives in my last entry-- similarly, this is a MEGACHAT.
Placement/location of this chat box for an archives might be a wee bit tricky. I probably would not place it on a Facebook page, because fewer patrons use Facebook than the World Wide Web when visiting institutions online, still. What do you do when you want to find information on a place? Most likely, you go to Google, and find the institutions website indirectly though a Google search (or one from another engine). In some cases, you might know the URL already, and could go directly to the site. Social Networking is up and coming as Socio-Business-Education networking, agreed, but there are still the residual Warehouse-of-Pictures-From-College-That-I-Don't-Want-My-Mom-to-See roots, which are, essentially, how Facebook got its start. It might be helpful to have a chat box on your institution's Facebook page, but maybe not the sole venue for IM. Additionally, a Facebook account can be pulled into Meebo anyways, right? This means your users chouls be able to contact you from Facebook even if someone is not actively navigating the page.
I like the idea of placing the chat box in the online catalog, which is probably the resource that remote users are most seeking from a library/institution website. This requires, of course, that there be an online catalog. The web page also seems to me to be a good spot. Can all three be done? If you've got the capability for Apps, the Mobile access is where it's at now and in the immediate foreseeable future. Go, Mobile Meebo!
Happy chatting, everyone!
Bee
It took me a few tries to get the widget going in Blogger, but there she is. -----> [sidebar]
This Meebo Widget (called "MeeboMe") can be embedded here in my Blog, somewhere else in your Blog, or on a web page. There is also a mobile edition! Pretty neat. I have a lot of IM experience but have never used Meebo. It's a pretty amazing tool-- especially for an institution (historical society, library, company) with multiple chat IDs on different platforms. From this one program, administrators can link a Facebook chat, a Google Talk, an AIM, a Yahoo!, a Windows Live, A Myspace, an ICQ, A Jabber, a Fixster, and about 40 more platforms that I have never even heard of. BAM! This is a great way to be able to connect to most users across all the most popular platforms that they might be running. I made a joke about archives-on-archives in my last entry-- similarly, this is a MEGACHAT.
Placement/location of this chat box for an archives might be a wee bit tricky. I probably would not place it on a Facebook page, because fewer patrons use Facebook than the World Wide Web when visiting institutions online, still. What do you do when you want to find information on a place? Most likely, you go to Google, and find the institutions website indirectly though a Google search (or one from another engine). In some cases, you might know the URL already, and could go directly to the site. Social Networking is up and coming as Socio-Business-Education networking, agreed, but there are still the residual Warehouse-of-Pictures-From-College-That-I-Don't-Want-My-Mom-to-See roots, which are, essentially, how Facebook got its start. It might be helpful to have a chat box on your institution's Facebook page, but maybe not the sole venue for IM. Additionally, a Facebook account can be pulled into Meebo anyways, right? This means your users chouls be able to contact you from Facebook even if someone is not actively navigating the page.
I like the idea of placing the chat box in the online catalog, which is probably the resource that remote users are most seeking from a library/institution website. This requires, of course, that there be an online catalog. The web page also seems to me to be a good spot. Can all three be done? If you've got the capability for Apps, the Mobile access is where it's at now and in the immediate foreseeable future. Go, Mobile Meebo!
Happy chatting, everyone!
Bee
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