Categories Social Media

337 posts

Posts about social media– how to use it, etc.

Embracing Services to Teens 2011: Revisiting Mishawaka’s Ban on Social Networking

A new anonymous comment went up on this post from 2008 about my hometown library’s ban of social media access because of issues with teens: https://tametheweb.com/2008/03/18/no-myspace-facebook-at-mishawaka-library/ No email address or URL was shared, so I thought I’d share the comment here so the person might get some useful feedback – including ideas to welcome everyone into the library without “stricter patron codes of conduct.” I would especially like to hear from teen librarians. I am currently employed at a library in Kentucky and I must say that I disagree with your assessment that the primary goal of the library should […]

From Reactive to Proactive Reference Service

Warren Cheetham ponders the demise of AskNow in Australia and offers some insights into his view of the future of reference: I wonder if this is a good opportunity for the AskNow partners and participants to consider the idea of a proactive online reference service for Australians, that takes into account the changes in online behaviour and information seeking that has led to the decline in use of AskNow. In brief, online services like Facebook and Twitter, and specific answer services like Yahoo Answers are filled with people asking their friends, families and followers all sorts of questions. Some of […]

The Transparent Library Director

I’m not a library director.  Heck, who knows if I’ll ever be a library director.  But spend some time working in a public library and you’ll see a common theme: most employees and the public have no clue what a library director does.  There’s this belief that the library director is some person way high up in the sky making all these decisions and pulling all these strings to make the library work. With such little information known about the day to day happenings of a library director, employees and patrons end up getting confused about the direction of the […]

Don’t Miss “Three Punk Rock Lessons for Surviving 21st Century Library Hell”

TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke serves up a mighty fine guest post at Heather McCormack’s blog: http://heathermccormack.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/guest-post-three-punk-rock-lessons-for-surviving-21st-century-library-hell/ For an example, I’m going to turn to Twitter. Just two years ago, I was a librarian in South Jersey tinkering with tweets, not knowing at all what I was doing. I took it upon myself to understand the strange little-big world of hyperlinks and handles. There were days when I didn’t get it and tweeted too much or avoided it out of a lack of confidence. But I kept pushing and experimenting. What finally happened reveals the true beauty of the DIY concept: […]

Extreme Library Twitter Makeover :-)

Good stuff: http://followalibrary.blogspot.com/2010/09/give-your-library-twitter-makeover-for.html Erin Logsdon (@taxonomylady) wrote a blogpost with some great tips how to give your library a twitter makeover for follow a library day. Having a complete profile (Location, Web, Bio) is important for two reasons. One, the text in these fields in keyword searchable, so it will help people find you if the information is complete and relevant. Two, people use the profile information as a contextual way of understanding who you are and the purpose of your Twitter account. Can they ask you a question via Twitter or do you only use the account to push […]

Fast, Open, and Transparent: Developing the Smithsonian’s Web and New Media Strategy

A flurry of work today getting ready for classes! Don’t miss this from the Smithsonian’s Michael Edson: Michael Edson: Fast, Open, and Transparent: Developing the Smithsonian’s Web and New Media Strategy View more documents from Michael Edson. This is a most useful document for designing our own Web and new media strategies for libraries and other institutions. Careful articulation of “pain points” followed by an ongoing, transparent strategic plan seems to me to be a formula for success – especially with layers of administration.

Follow a Library Day at ALA TechSource

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/09/follow-a-library.html Excerpt: What I appreciate the most about this project is their main goal is educating people about the benefits of following a library on Twitter. The group is aiming beyond our little online world of librarians and library folk and I think we should help them. What better way to do your own promotion for YOUR library’s Twitter feed than to play up this internationally organized day. Some off the cuff ideas whilst I continue to recuperate after that unfortunate dog-related injury: Embed the overview video in your library’s blog or Web site and write a little blurb about […]