Method #9 IM Chatty

Chat is not a new concept to me. I have tried it years ago and again most recently in various webinars and with a text referencing service that we are involved in called MyInfoquest. When the MyInfoquest libraries meet online for meetings, we use a combination of audio, online, and chat features. It is pretty high energy keeping up with all the various mediums and conversations. When I first tried chat years ago, it was not easy and I did not like it. Now that I have had more training and experience it is a lot easier. Chat/IM in libraries adds a whole new dimension of service. It fits in well with virtual library service. Though we do not currently offer this type of service we do plan to in the future. Currently we encourage people to drop by, call, or send us an email. We also have a Facebook, Twitter, and blog accounts to interact with people as well. After reading about Meebo, I think that would be a great way to start the IM/Chat service because you don't have to be tied to any certain account, it appears to interact with any of the services.

Method # 8 Let's Get Sociable!

Social networking sites are a great way to interact with others, including connecting with past and present colleagues and friends, making new friends, and keeping in touch with family. In regards to libraries it is an excellent way to reach out to both library users and nonusers alike to promote libraries. It would be great if someday everyone would either be physical or virtual library users and social networking is the way to make that happen. In regards to privacy concerns between private and professional life in an online environment, there is nothing wrong with combining the two as long as the personal information that you share does not reflect poorly on your employer. It is also important to remember that anything that is put into the online environment can be read by anyone. Our library is currently using social networking tools including Face Book, Twitter, Ning and a blog. We also have almost 5,000 people signed up on the library listserv. We plan on using more social networking tools in the future. It can be very time consuming but it is time well spent to promote libraries. I currently post my weekly library newsletter on our various sites once a week unless I get emails that let me know someone is following our tweets or wants to be added as a friend. I appreciate the various discovery exercises given on the TSLAC 2.0 because it enabled me to learn about other organizations and groups that I would like to join and follow. One thing that I really like about social networking is that others can learn about what you are doing when you sign up to keep up with what they are doing. Next thing you know many people are learning new things from each other!http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1131775397&v=wall

Method #4 Feed Your RSS, It's Hungry!

I would like it a lot better if my feeds could be fed into my email! I learned about RSS feeds when I took the North Texas 23 and I set up my reader at that time. Since then I have not taken much time to go back and read the feeds. It would be more beneficial to me if my feeds could "feed" into my email inbox which I check more often. When I went to add subscriptions and looked for the "discover" link, it was nowhere to be found so I just typed in a topic anyway. I typed in library politics but the results were not what I expected. I subscribed to feeds in the NT23 but like I said before, had not gotten back to them until now. I decided to look at the Top Recommendations. The four new feeds I have subscribed to include Designing Better Libraries (http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/feed) North Texas Regional Library System (http://blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) Blog Junction (http://blog.webjunctionworks.org/index.php/feed) and M Word--Marketing Libraries (http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) I really liked the Designing Better Libraries and even sent the information to Laurie (a staff member) for us to keep in mind when planning for current and future library growth. I enjoyed another article from Blog Junction (Twitter Tips for Libraries) so much that I sent a Face Book friend request to the author of the article so I could keep up with other library articles he writes. I do like the idea of RSS feeds but I still would like them to get closer to me, which is my email inbox.

Tubing the Internet

First of all, I thought that our library had a YouTube account but I did not find anything under the library's name so I just started looking at some Little Elm tubes...The first was entitled Coming to Little Elm--Limited Engagement promoting the musical Bye-Bye Birdie. The promo had still pictures moving in and out with music. I thought it was pretty well done. The title is what caught my eye because I was wondering what the library did not know about. I also watched a Little Elm Autumn Fest 07 HipHop video of a HipHop group performing during the 2007 Autumn Fest. It was pretty good videography though it did not look like it was done by a professional. It would be useful to promote future Autumn Fests. I did notice that after watching that Hip Hop tube, other Hip Hop tubes came up for me to choose, so I liked that option. After perusing down Little Elm Lane I decided to go back to the Library world and found a tube entitled Discover a New World @ Columbus Public Library. Wow, was I impressed. The purpose was to show what the library had to offer. Very unique format with animation and popups. I had never seen a tube done in this fashion before but then again, I do not spend a lot of time on YouTube, though my patrons do. Since I just finished learning about Twitter, I watched a tube that was answering Twitter questions. The camera was focused on the individual answering questions. The camera would pan from the screen with the question to the individual reading the question and then answering them. Though the picture was clear and the reason behind what the purpose was understood, I thought the format was pretty boring. I do think that YouTube use by libraries can be very beneficial to promote what libraries are doing to various age groups and also help to train staff or general public about different things. I did try to sign the library up for an account but have not been successful yet but after I get finished with the 23 things assignment, that will be my next goal.

Here Birdy, Birdy, Birdy

Rockin' Robin has always been my favorite song, though Disco Duck is a close second. Must be a bird thing. (Thanks to OpenPhoto for Disco and Duck photos). Twitter was simpler than I thought and I found I CAN keep my info short. I am thankful it keeps count for me but so far I have not gone over. Having to keep my column to a certain length every week has probably helped me be more aware of verbage length but I really need to work on just writing enough to stay within the box when I am blogging (except for my column of course). I am currently following 11, have three followers, and made two tweets. I plan on using this account to let people know when a new column is out but I also think it will be a great way to keep people aware of upcoming programs and what's happening on a daily basis. Best laid plans...kind of like resolutions, works the first couple of days :-) I still say, marketing is a full time job in itself, but very important. I am going to look more into the hashtags and maybe see if I can use that for my Page by Page newsletter. My Twitter account name is littlelmlibrary. Notice it only has one e. The account name cut me off at y which made the name librar so I figured the name would flow better with one e because it still looks like it is supposed to. I hear about Twitter everyday but I heard about it on the radio today when the announcer was asking who does it and they reported a story that mentioned a woman was tweeting while giving birth. Screaming was the norm in my day :-) Tweet Tweet for now!