As someone who over the last few years has come to rely heavily on Twitter.com as a networking tool, I was happily surprised to discover last night that IRL can actually be even more fun sometimes!
IRL - or In Real Life - networking is scary, much more difficult that online networking, because we actually have to put ourselves out there. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I went to the cpd23 Thing 7 tweet-up last night. Walking towards the pub, I'll admit I was nervous.
It is only once you've arrived and started talking to people that you remember how much fun real-life networking can be. Catching up with people, sharing current news, makes all the online networking that we do more real somehow. Face to face networking reminds us about how every other part of our networking life fits together.
I was also at the event last night as a representative of a spcial interest group, namely CDG. I was pleased that I managed to chat to a few people, including new professionals, about the group and the benefits of joining CILIP. The main criticism was that if people can go to events as non-members at only slightly more cost then members, what incentive is there to join? And I'm not sure about that really. Limiting events to members would remove a revenue source and make the group more elitist, but perhaps it would encourage membership. It is a risky strategy. I took the line that if you are a passive CILIP member then it is true that you do not get the most out of your subscription. You need to be actively engaged in order to fully be a part of a professional body. Everything that you experience as a committee member, the positive and the negative times, develop you both personally and professionally. And I think I even convinced one person to consider joining a committee, so my work there was certainly done!
Many thanks to the East of England CILIP branch for organising such a worthwhile event.
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
RSS and All That Jazz
This week in the cpd23 programme, we are covering Thing 4: current awareness.
I really don't have much to say about this one. I actively use Twitter.com in order to keep up to date professionally and I also follow some celebrity-type people. The debate as to whether a Twitter presence should be purely professional or whether it should show our rounded personalities has been had many times and will probably continue to be a topic of hot debate. For me, I walk a middle line. I tend to keep things professional but I am not averse to having an exchange with a fellow professional about their cat's odd habits. Twitter is primarily a way to keep up with breaking news and events within our profession.
RSS feeds have been a staple part of my professional life for many years now, although I tend not to use them for websites of personal interest as I enjoy browsing in my leisure time. Professionally, the amount of sites, journals and blogs that I try to keep up to date with would only be possible through RSS feeds. It is a great invention. We can pull everything together into one reader. We can even categorise our reader to make it even more useful. And yet, I still have 400 unread items in my RSS reader. Whilst it is indispensable to have the technology to gather everything in one place, there is still the problem of having the time to sit down and read everything!
Pushnote is something to which I'll return at a later date.
I really don't have much to say about this one. I actively use Twitter.com in order to keep up to date professionally and I also follow some celebrity-type people. The debate as to whether a Twitter presence should be purely professional or whether it should show our rounded personalities has been had many times and will probably continue to be a topic of hot debate. For me, I walk a middle line. I tend to keep things professional but I am not averse to having an exchange with a fellow professional about their cat's odd habits. Twitter is primarily a way to keep up with breaking news and events within our profession.
RSS feeds have been a staple part of my professional life for many years now, although I tend not to use them for websites of personal interest as I enjoy browsing in my leisure time. Professionally, the amount of sites, journals and blogs that I try to keep up to date with would only be possible through RSS feeds. It is a great invention. We can pull everything together into one reader. We can even categorise our reader to make it even more useful. And yet, I still have 400 unread items in my RSS reader. Whilst it is indispensable to have the technology to gather everything in one place, there is still the problem of having the time to sit down and read everything!
Pushnote is something to which I'll return at a later date.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Thing 7: Twitter
Well, I have always been in favour of Twitter and am delighted to be back in fairly safe territory with Thing 7! I recently blogged about the merits of twitter here. It is an inspired solution to keeping current within the profession. It enables us to follow debates, trend topics, and take the power of information dissemination into our own hands. Of course, there are people who insist on micro-blogging about every micro-aspect of their life. As in real life, these people are best avoided (psst: just don't follow them!) Selectivity is the key. That, and deciding how you're going to use Twitter.
There are quite a few libraries on Twitter who use the tool to push information out to their users, both information specific to that library and often information about the interests of the readership in general. It is an immediate and current way to connect with our users. A change in opening hours at short notice, for example, is pushed out to users as quickly as possible. However, that relies on users 'following' the library. Because not everyone will want to do this, we cannot disperse with other methods of information dissemination. No one is saying that we shouldn't put notices up or update the library website homepage. Twitter is just another channel.
On a professional peer to peer level, I find Twitter invaluable. I would miss so many interesting facets of our profession and current debates without this tool. Twitter brings attention to projects and current events; one only has to look at the amount of Tweets containing the #cam23 tag to see how much interest we're generating!
There are quite a few libraries on Twitter who use the tool to push information out to their users, both information specific to that library and often information about the interests of the readership in general. It is an immediate and current way to connect with our users. A change in opening hours at short notice, for example, is pushed out to users as quickly as possible. However, that relies on users 'following' the library. Because not everyone will want to do this, we cannot disperse with other methods of information dissemination. No one is saying that we shouldn't put notices up or update the library website homepage. Twitter is just another channel.
On a professional peer to peer level, I find Twitter invaluable. I would miss so many interesting facets of our profession and current debates without this tool. Twitter brings attention to projects and current events; one only has to look at the amount of Tweets containing the #cam23 tag to see how much interest we're generating!
Thursday, 4 February 2010
In Defence of Twitter.
After a year and a half hiatus, I am resuming command of the blog from the binary clutches of deep-cyberspace. In my defence, I can only apologise for the long blogging break. Moving jobs, finishing library school, discovering new e-resources - these things all take time.
Still, a new decade marks a new resolution to blog regularly about timely and interesting happenings. And although Twitter has been a part of my consciousness for some time now, I am still regulary required to leap to the defence of the online micro-blogging site.
Some of the most common phrases: "what's it all about anyway", "oh that's just FB status updates without all the other stuff", "I don't get the point of knowing whether someone's eaten an apple or not." However, Twitter isn't (or at least shouldn't) be like that. Yes, it encourages a form of status posting. Yes, one theoretically (and many do) could post the contents of one's breakfast. I admit that this type of tweeting does for me fulfil a deep seated need to know about random trivia.
However, the real power of Twitter lies not in its random statuses but in the sharing and linking of data across platforms and across multiple data sources.
Today from my followees I learnt about the latest CILIPCouncilBlog, I analysed the impact of foresquare loation-based tweets, found out about Mexican film screenings, saw how many libraries use or are in consultation with Nielson Bookdata, read about the latest debates in HE, realised that other people aside from me read the weekly LCSH 'new headings' list, found out that the Pope's UK visit will apparently cost an inordinate amount of money and signed a petition to state that the UK taxplayer should not be obliged to foot the bill. I follow 138 people. 99 follow me. I am listed in eight lists. I follow publishers, libraries, librarians, writers, comedians. I feel connected and enjoy seeing what other people do all day.
On a larger scale, by putting a # before a word in Twitter one creates 'trending topics' which then become real-time searches. We have such classics as #latenightlibrarian, #uksnow and #LCSH. I have recently been trying to introduce #creatureofhabit and #librarianonleave with varied amounts of success. My favourite current trends are #foodinlibraries and #omnomnom, so perfectly opposite in their hatred and love of eating.
Kitteh speak becomes more commonplace in tweets as lolcat language takes over. There is a relaxed and convival atmosphere which gives birth to the perfect medium through which to share professional anecdotes about successful initiatives or dismal failures.
This is my main purpose for using and contributing to Twitter, to become connected within a connected world, to join a network of information professionals who all support and embrace the future and future technology. Oh and of course, I am missing Stephen Fry. Please write your latest book soon and come back to the Twitter-verse. K? Plsnthx.
Still, a new decade marks a new resolution to blog regularly about timely and interesting happenings. And although Twitter has been a part of my consciousness for some time now, I am still regulary required to leap to the defence of the online micro-blogging site.
Some of the most common phrases: "what's it all about anyway", "oh that's just FB status updates without all the other stuff", "I don't get the point of knowing whether someone's eaten an apple or not." However, Twitter isn't (or at least shouldn't) be like that. Yes, it encourages a form of status posting. Yes, one theoretically (and many do) could post the contents of one's breakfast. I admit that this type of tweeting does for me fulfil a deep seated need to know about random trivia.
However, the real power of Twitter lies not in its random statuses but in the sharing and linking of data across platforms and across multiple data sources.
Today from my followees I learnt about the latest CILIPCouncilBlog, I analysed the impact of foresquare loation-based tweets, found out about Mexican film screenings, saw how many libraries use or are in consultation with Nielson Bookdata, read about the latest debates in HE, realised that other people aside from me read the weekly LCSH 'new headings' list, found out that the Pope's UK visit will apparently cost an inordinate amount of money and signed a petition to state that the UK taxplayer should not be obliged to foot the bill. I follow 138 people. 99 follow me. I am listed in eight lists. I follow publishers, libraries, librarians, writers, comedians. I feel connected and enjoy seeing what other people do all day.
On a larger scale, by putting a # before a word in Twitter one creates 'trending topics' which then become real-time searches. We have such classics as #latenightlibrarian, #uksnow and #LCSH. I have recently been trying to introduce #creatureofhabit and #librarianonleave with varied amounts of success. My favourite current trends are #foodinlibraries and #omnomnom, so perfectly opposite in their hatred and love of eating.
Kitteh speak becomes more commonplace in tweets as lolcat language takes over. There is a relaxed and convival atmosphere which gives birth to the perfect medium through which to share professional anecdotes about successful initiatives or dismal failures.
This is my main purpose for using and contributing to Twitter, to become connected within a connected world, to join a network of information professionals who all support and embrace the future and future technology. Oh and of course, I am missing Stephen Fry. Please write your latest book soon and come back to the Twitter-verse. K? Plsnthx.
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