I'm cranking these posts out today. I have a ton of homework to do...
Oh, Twitter, how much I heart thee. I was slow to using Twitter, and I still have to remember to tweet things. I'm not obsessed with gathering followers, and as it is, I don't follow that many people because I feel like I need to read every tweet and more people would mean more tweets.
Twitter is awesome because it's open to anything you want to say in 140 characters or less. It asks, "What are you doing?" but it means, "What are you doing? What are you thinking? What are you reading? What are you eating? What do you want to say to the world?"
My last tweet was about how much I loved the show True Blood (premiered on HBO last night), but that I wished it stuck more to the books. On the side of my home page, I could see that True Blood was the topic of a lot of discussion last night. Today, it's been bumped down by #iranelection, Tehran, and Lakers.
The last thing I heard about Twitter was my own plan for a program to teach parents what it is and why they might want to use it. Unfortunately, a massive thunderstorm cancelled my program, but I hope that we can reschedule it soon. I know there have already been questions from patrons about when we would have it, and that makes me feel really good, like people are realizing that this is something worth knowing about.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thing 11: IM
IM reminds me of middle school, because that's when I first started using it. Everyone I knew had AOL, and so that's what we all used. When I got to college, my internet was provided, so I started using AIM. Now, I don't really use anything. Google Chat, occasionally. I feel like I don't have the time like I used to for sitting around chatting online.
Anyways, I created an account to use in AIM Express. My user name is callunaling. The thing is, I don't think I'll ever use it on a personal basis. I get why it's important to be familiar with instant messaging. It's a great service to provide patrons who want to ask a reference question without having to call or come in. I know of several libraries who use IM successfully for this purpose.
As I've gotten older, and as my friends have gotten older, and we're all in jobs that keep us from being online all day, none of us really use instant messaging anymore. We keep up by changing our Facebook status, by tweeting... by doing things that don't require a conversation with instant responses. If you IM someone and they don't respond within a reasonable amount of time, they're being rude. If you change your status or tweet and someone doesn't respond, they're busy.
Anyways, I created an account to use in AIM Express. My user name is callunaling. The thing is, I don't think I'll ever use it on a personal basis. I get why it's important to be familiar with instant messaging. It's a great service to provide patrons who want to ask a reference question without having to call or come in. I know of several libraries who use IM successfully for this purpose.
As I've gotten older, and as my friends have gotten older, and we're all in jobs that keep us from being online all day, none of us really use instant messaging anymore. We keep up by changing our Facebook status, by tweeting... by doing things that don't require a conversation with instant responses. If you IM someone and they don't respond within a reasonable amount of time, they're being rude. If you change your status or tweet and someone doesn't respond, they're busy.
Thing 10: Ning
Ning is pretty nifty, I must say. It might come into good use for libraries who don't want to use Facebook groups (I'm told there are people who don't have and don't want Facebook).
I searched for beer because my husband is really into homebrewing now and I thought I might find a group he would be interested in. It turns out I found one that was good for me instead. I joined the group and read through the blog posts. The best part is that the woman who started the blog is also on Twitter, so I just started following her and she tweets when there's a new post.
I'm sure that if you didn't have a particular interest in mind that Ning could be a little overwhelming. There's a lot of groups on there, and finding one that is a right fit for you could be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
I searched for beer because my husband is really into homebrewing now and I thought I might find a group he would be interested in. It turns out I found one that was good for me instead. I joined the group and read through the blog posts. The best part is that the woman who started the blog is also on Twitter, so I just started following her and she tweets when there's a new post.
I'm sure that if you didn't have a particular interest in mind that Ning could be a little overwhelming. There's a lot of groups on there, and finding one that is a right fit for you could be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Monday, June 1, 2009
I'm pretty sure I've had Facebook since it came out. I had the advantage of being in college when only college students were allowed to create accounts - as in, you could only use your campus e-mail address to sign up. Since Facebook started, there have been a ton of changes, some of which I'm not so happy with. For one thing, they opened it up to high schools, which I know made a lot of us college students groan and think they were going to turn Facebook into another Myspace, which basically happened anyways when they started adding all these apps, and now some Facebook pages are so cluttered with quizzes and buttons and "Which Twilight character are you?" that it might as well be Myspace.
I got ahead of myself. After they let in high schoolers, they opened it up to anyone, and again, college kids weren't that thrilled. For one thing, it felt relatively safe when the only people who could potentially see your profile, depending on your privacy settings, were people at your own school. Now potential employers can find out if you're a partier, or your current employer can know if you're not really sick and you're really at the beach. Worst of all: MOMS. FAMILY. My mother-in-law is on Facebook, which is fine because she added us kids but hasn't added embarrassing pictures, unlike a certain cousin of mine X(
The groups I've joined (and left) over the years have been dependent upon where I am. For example, I'm a member of UNT SLIS, IPJ 2006(reppin' an institute I attended at Georgetown), and Appalachian Newsies(I was on the newspaper staff while I was in undergrad). I'm also a member of, among others, People Who F---in Hate Grammatical Errors (App State Chapter) and Excuse Me... Have You Seen My Stapler?
I'm a fan of a few pages, including Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, Mythbusters, Barack Obama, and Multiple Sclerosis Awareness.
I got ahead of myself. After they let in high schoolers, they opened it up to anyone, and again, college kids weren't that thrilled. For one thing, it felt relatively safe when the only people who could potentially see your profile, depending on your privacy settings, were people at your own school. Now potential employers can find out if you're a partier, or your current employer can know if you're not really sick and you're really at the beach. Worst of all: MOMS. FAMILY. My mother-in-law is on Facebook, which is fine because she added us kids but hasn't added embarrassing pictures, unlike a certain cousin of mine X(
The groups I've joined (and left) over the years have been dependent upon where I am. For example, I'm a member of UNT SLIS, IPJ 2006(reppin' an institute I attended at Georgetown), and Appalachian Newsies(I was on the newspaper staff while I was in undergrad). I'm also a member of, among others, People Who F---in Hate Grammatical Errors (App State Chapter) and Excuse Me... Have You Seen My Stapler?
I'm a fan of a few pages, including Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, Mythbusters, Barack Obama, and Multiple Sclerosis Awareness.
Thing 6 & 7
I've been using Google Reader for quite awhile now. I had one of those epiphanies when I couldn't remember every site I went to every day, and I'd forget one and miss on a whole week of posts. It makes it so much easier, and for sites where they post multiple things per day, I don't have to keep going back to that site. I keep Google Reader open in a tab, and I know instantly when there's something new.
I know that patrons could use this to follow my library's blog, but I think librarians could use it for their own personal development, like keeping up with news on Library Journal.
For Thing 7, I already have a ton of things I follow, but I did add Unshelved, which is another one of those sites I followed by going to the web site, then missing it for several weeks. (And if anyone is interested, when we get to Twitter, Bill Barnes from Unshelved is on there under billba.)
I know that patrons could use this to follow my library's blog, but I think librarians could use it for their own personal development, like keeping up with news on Library Journal.
For Thing 7, I already have a ton of things I follow, but I did add Unshelved, which is another one of those sites I followed by going to the web site, then missing it for several weeks. (And if anyone is interested, when we get to Twitter, Bill Barnes from Unshelved is on there under billba.)
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