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LASSIE - Libraries and Social Software in Education

Introduction

LASSIE was a 9 month project funded by the Centre for Distance Education at the University of London. It started in March 2007 and was completed in January 2008. It explored how social software might enhance distance learners' use of libraries. It also considered more widely the value of new technologies, commonly called web 2.0, or social software, for libraries and explored the role of the library as a social space.

The LASSIE Project Blog is still being maintained so do add it to your feed reader! To read more about the project see the summary below.

Project team and steering group

The research team was led by Dr Jane Secker, from the Centre for Learning Technology at London School of Economics and Political Science and Gwyneth Price from the Institute of Education. Members of the project Steering Board included:

Heather Dawson, Library, LSE
Susan Eales, Open University
Caroline Lloyd, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Kris Roger, LSE, Centre for Learning Technology
Frances Shipsey, E-Services Librarian, LSE
Ian Snowley, University of London, Research Library Services
Anna Towlson, LSE Archives

Project documents

  1. Project Summary, March 2007
  2. Project Plan, April 2007
  3. Draft literature review, July 2007
  4. Final literature review, January 2008
  5. LASSIE Project Overview and Key Findings, March 2008

Case Study Reports

  1. Case Study One: reading lists and social software. January 2008
  2. Case Study Two: resource sharing and social software . January 2008
  3. Case Study Three: citing and referencing podcast. January 2008
  4. Case Study Four: blogging and libraries. January 2008
  5. Case Study Five: libraries and Facebook. January 2008

Social software we are using

We used a variety of different types of social software both to assist us in carrying out the research, but also to explore what might be useful. Below is a list of some of the tools we considered to be useful:

  • Social bookmarking: see our list of resources for the project in del.icio.us
Here is our del.icio.us tag cloud :

Publications and conferences

Dissemination activities are an important part of this project. Below is a list of publications, conference papers and other presentations related to LASSIE:

  1. Secker, Jane and Price, Gwyneth (2007) Libraries, Social Software and Distance Learners. Paper given at CPD25 Conference: The Library in the Interactive Environment: Practical use of technology to improve the student experience'. 23rd April 2007
  2. Secker, Jane. (2007) Libraries, social software and distance learners: LASSIE's recent experiences in the web 2.0 world. Paper given at CDE Fellows Conference. Institute of Education. 19th June 2007. http://www.cde.london.ac.uk/support/events/event3319.htm
  3. Secker, Jane and Lingard, Matt. (2007) Tag it, blog it, share it. Hands on workshop at ALISS Conference: Getting to Grips with the Google Generation. University of Leeds. 5th July 2007
  4. Secker, Jane. (2007) Tag it, blog it, share it. Hands on workshop at Education Librarians Group event. UCL. 12th July 2007
  5. Secker, Jane and Price, Gwyneth. (2007) Libraries as a social space: enhancing the experience of distance learners using social networking tools. Paper given at Libraries Without Walls 7. 14-18th September 2007. Lesbos, Greece. http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww7/abstracts.php#gpjs
  6. Secker, Jane, Price, Gwyneth and Roger, Kris. (2007) Libraries, distance learners and social software: providing social spaces to support learning. Paper at Towards a Social Science of Web 2.0 Conference. Univeristy of York. 5-6th September 2007. http://www.york.ac.uk/res/siru/web2.0/secker.htm
  7. Secker, Jane and Price, Gwyneth (2007) Libraries, Social Software and distance learners: blog it, tag it, share it! New Review of Information Networking, 13 (1), 39.
  8. Secker, Jane (2007) The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners. UK Serials Group Seminar: Caught up in Web 2.0? 22nd November 2007. http://www.uksg.org/event/web20
  9. Secker, Jane (2008) The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners. libraries@Cambridge conference presentation. 10th January 2008.
  10. Secker, Jane (2008) The continuing adventures of LASSIE. ALISS Quarterly 3 (2), 9-12.
  11. Secker, Jane (2008) Libraries and social software: the adventures of LASSIE. LSE Library Lunchtime Seminar. 17th January 2008. Available on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/seckerj/lassie-lse-library
  12. Secker, Jane and Lloyd, Caroline (2008). Libraries, social software and distance learners: the adventures of LASSIE. Health Information on the Internet. 60 (2). (forthcoming)
  13. Secker, Jane and Price, Gwyneth (2008) Virtual Libraries as Virtual Learning Spaces: the experiences of the LASSIE project. Paper given at Networked Learning Conference, Halkidiki, Greece. 5-6th May 2008. http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/abstracts/15_price.htm (forthcoming) 

Subsequent publications (after May 2008) are available from CLT reports and publications.

Contact details

Dr. Jane Secker
Learning Technology Librarian
CLT
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
j.secker@lse.ac.uk