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.

Peas in a Pod or Cast Out Your Audio

I have been wanting to podcast my weekly library newsletter Page by Page for quite some time but have not cast off into that world of the unknown...yet. Though this assignment has given me more information, I am still not quite ready, though closer. I have been told by our IT department that the town website provider will be adding podcasting capabilities soon so I am waiting to use their tools. I tried to open an account with podcastplatform but it said fatal error and at one time even said I already had an account but I kept being sent in a circle. I will keep trying because I did like the information there. I did put it in my favorites and tagged it in my Delicious account. I also liked the podcast friendly music links. Speaking of which, when listening to some of the library podcasts I was a little confused because I heard stories being read. Aren't there copyright issues? Did the libraries have to get permission to read the stories first? I am sure I will probably find out these answers once I thoroughly read through all the podcasting information. I hate to say this but some of the podcasts were kinda boring...zzzz. One thing that people need to remember when doing podcasts is to be careful of the letter p and b and to try not to be close to the mike when saying words with those letters. I like music in the background before a podcast because it gets you in the mood and ready to listen to what's coming up. I think I would be dangerous if I knew how to properly use all the podcast tools and toys because I would probably use a lot in my podcast. A lot of the podcasts that I heard were book talks, reading books, or interviews...standard library stuff.

Podcasting would definitely be useful to my patrons. As I stated earlier, the first podcast I plan on doing is the weekly library newsletter. I think the patrons will find it useful because I know people already read it. I am planning on doing a podcasting survey once we are close to providing that service to find out what people would like to hear.