Social Media

This week in our trainee session we were investigating the use of Information Literacy and Web 2.0 (social media).  Web 2.0 signifies the change in which the web is no longer just about providing information but linking people together, sharing and discussing information.

We watched an interesting (and very creative!)  video which explains the shift:  The Machine is Us/ing us

As part of the session, we had been split into groups to research and present a particular aspect of social media including blogs, social networking sites (Facebook), twitter, social book-marking sites (Delicious), podcasting, Wikis and LibraryThing.

The presentations were really interesting (especially as I knew very little about Delicious, Wikis and LibraryThing beforehand!) and the source of much discussion! Some of the key points that I took from the session include:

• It’s important for libraries to have an online presence that is linked into many aspects of social media and that continues to evolve with the constant changes and updates
• Many of the social media based services are free and simple to use and often provide a library presence in a media with which readers are already engaging.
• Although setting up and maintaining media such as blogs, twitter or Facebook may seem time consuming, they can save time in the long term, especially as information can be shared quickly and efficiently across platforms and may replace or reduce time spent on other task such as bulk e-mailing, writing newsletters or answering enquiries via e-mail.
• Social media is a great tool for advertising and marketing of library services, it provides more ways for readers to find, contact and learn about the library.
• It’s not all about stats!  It’s about getting the information out there and helping readers to access and use it quickly and effectively.

Jayne and I worked on a presentation looking at the use of Blogs in Libraries.  To really show off what a blog can do we decided to present our information in blog form.  So if you’d like to learn more about the purpose, features and uses of blogs in libraries here is a link to our blog:

Lib-Blogology

It’d be great to hear other views on library blogging so feel free to comment, ask questions or share good practice by suggesting library blogs you’ve found interesting or helpful!