Please zip over and read my post about Flickr at ALA TechSource. http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/07/flickr-libraries-scary-scary-scary-to-some-folks.html I ask that you do not make any spur-of-the-moment, reactionary decisions, Flickr’ing Librarians! What I sincerely hope will not happen is the libraries and associations that have started using Flickr will abandon the site because they are scared… come on! Don’t let this type of e-mail campaign derail you. Look at the big picture of how this site and many others are used and can benefit your online presence. Let’s teach our users about the good and bad of online communities, BUT LET’S NOT just close the […]
Categories Social Media
330 posts
Best Blog Practices and More for Libraries Chicago, IL, July, 26 2006 – ” /> What can social software do for your library? Find out in the latest issue of Library Technology Reports, "Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software," by librarian, author, and technology trainer Michael Stephens. A comprehensive, pass-around resource you and your fellow library staff members can consult to plan your library's social-software initiatives, Stephens's report details numerous successful library implementations of some of today's most used social-software tools, including: Weblogs (blogs) Podcasts RSS feeds Instant Messaging (IM) Wikis Flickr In the issue, Stephens illustrates […]
Via http://collegewebeditor.com/blog/index.php/archives/2006/06/17/put-your-current-students-on-im-to-answer-your-prospective-students-questions/: Blogs are nice, but sometimes prospective students crave a bit more real-time interaction. When high school students want to ask a quick question about admission, student life or academic programs, chances are they prefer to get an answer right away. They won’t call your admission office (hey, you’ve never been introduced – and they love to spend time on the phone, but only with their friends). They might not email you (email is so yesterday and formal). That’s why you should offer them to IM (instant message) you. I know, I know, it might be a challenge to […]
A question to Rachel and I about my FASTER IM piece in CIL: Hello Rachel and Michael, Thanks a lot for the fine IM FASTER article. If you have a second, I’d like to ask one question. You state, “Your work flow won’t suffer at all if you incorporate an IM application on one of your reference area computers; IM simply becomes part of the reference staff duties… The AskSJCPL service is staffed by the same librarians who work the telephone and public reference desk.” You refer to computers and librarians, plural. The majority of the time our reference desk […]
http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/profile.php (Via Download Squad
cool way to promote their IM service Originally uploaded by February 28. Darren Chase posts an ingenious idea: using the desktop to promote IM! Thanks Darren!
An Abramism via a recent email: “Blocking MySpace teaches kids as many good searching and internet safety skills as banning roads does teaching kids road crossing safety.” Stephen Abram Well said!
Brian Kenney has a wonderful editorial in the June SLJ on DOPA: Yes, here we go again. A “quick fix” that we’re not asking for, which won’t work, and which subverts the real purpose of schools and libraries: educating young people. No matter where you come down on the whole MySpace-in-libraries debate, do you really want your library locked in a “technobubble,” cut off from the evolving Internet?
http://www.wpl.ca/ I talk about WPL a lot because they are doing some cool stuff… Take a look at the Flickr section of their front page. It links to their collection of sets. This not only allows the librarians to organize, tag and receive comments on their photos, but it also educates users: this might be some folks first experience with Flickr. It’s a Web-based teaching moment! Other experienced Flickr folks might click through and add WPL as a contact. In fact, maybe the next step is a link in that box something like this: Add the Waterloo Public Library to […]
http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_ubiquitous_librarian/2006/06/the_place_where.html The Ubiquitous Librarian points out that some students identify the library as the “place where fun comes to die” via Facebook. The wonderful thing is he doesn’t cluck and hurumph, he prposes turning such things around: It could be interesting to surprise a group like this one day with pizza or sodas or a coupon for a free coffee from the library café. Catch them off guard. Provide a seemingly random unique experience. And more than anything, create positive grassroots PR for the Library. Are you thinking this way? Are you checking out Facebook and MySpace to see what […]