Paul Courant came in and discussed a Digital Public Library of America along with academic and public libraries and a few other topics. I am so sad that I cannot remember all of the details to this discussion we had. I had taken notes in class, but did save them right away and my computer restarted on me. Since I only have Microsoft Word Starter instead of the full version, it did not save. I am looking forward to reading other people’s blog so I can complete my notes again.
After our guest lecturer we split into our cohorts and discussed embedded librarianship. For the most part, our group decided that it did not have to be a “lonely” position. We also concluded that while embedded librarianship can be in public libraries it seem more common or practical in an academic library.
Twitter
Ok, I have joined everyone else and signed up for Twitter. It frustrated me so much I think I will inactive my account after we are done with it. It kept on freezing on me, the site was down a couple of times, and it was extremely slow at loading my searches. I thought it might have been my computer or connection, but other sites worked and loaded fine.
I followed a variety of people and institutions in the field of archives and libraries such as ALA, archivesnext, AADL, and a few of the bloggers that I have been following. The archive tweeters seemed to actually provide more “important” information than library tweeters did. For instance, libraries tweeted about upcoming events or books, while archive tweets contained more news updates such as budget cuts. Some of the issues that did come up were the HarperCollins policy and using social media in libraries. While I can see how social media can benefit libraries because it helps people connect to them, I’m still not a fan of it for real communications. The statuses are just too short to be informative.
Something else I found interesting, ALA seemed to post more on Facebook than they did on Twitter. On my Facebook, ALA updated info about webinars, conferences, voting, etc. I also found Facebook provided more in-depth information since it’s not limited to just 140 characters. I’m sorry all of you tweeters, but I’m going to stick to Facebook.
I feel that I should actually follow some more librarian librarians on my Twitter, maybe then I'll be able to get more out of the site, and maybe learn to like it. But for now, I'm with you and just going to stick to Facebook. We should stick together on that! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sticking with Facebook too. And I think that libraries would be better off focusing their attention there too. It just seems like Facebook has many more options when it comes to connecting to patrons. For example, I really love the Facebook questions Emily is doing at the Chelsea Library. That kind of thing makes me really happy. Plus, you are completely right about the limited information 140 characters can provide.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least you didn't call Paul Courant "Doug." But it's fixed now. I don't know, I've never really thought about it being "lonely" without other librarians in, say, a school library, but then again I've never worked in one. But, yes, Twitter, getting rid of that. Or at least just being dormant on it. Not for me either.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot of people say, like you, that Twitter gave them problems from a technical standpoint: freezing, slowness, etc. I didn't have any of those problems, but I'm still not sure if I like it. Facebook seems friendlier to me.
ReplyDelete