Social Media & Social
Networking for
Librarians
Sandbox lessons before "the
real thing"

Stephanie (Sara Leah) Gross
Librarian, Electronic Reserves
Yeshiva University

Social media
Media that promotes the sharing
of thoughts, material (including
print and electronic sources)
First well-received s.m. were web
pages, wikis and blogs of the
Web1.0 technology.

Research on Internet
use: Research Center--American Life
Pew
Nielsen Company time spent
online
Nielsen Company S/N rankings

Most popular: Chat/Text
IM (SMS, MMS)--Text
Google Talk, Yahoo!IM
Conference: DimDim.com
Variety of devices: PC,
Handheld (e.g. Blackberry,
cellphones, ultraportable
notebooks)

Some examples:
http://www.ajlnyma.org
http://www.newyorklibraryclub.o
rg
At best: Have moved at least to
Web2.0 (interactive) presence.
Minimally: Anarchronistic, but
still useful.

Tutorial? Help?
Association of Jewish Libraries--
Hidden wealth of resources:
FAQs, bibliographies, links,
expert advice
http://www.jewishlibraries.org

Bookmarlets
Portable, Mozilla Firefox XMarks
(formerly Clipmarks)
Some bookmarking systems (e.g.
Google) integrate personal
bookmarking with Delicious
Delicious---Favorite for
librarians (also Magnolia). Made
"tag cloud" popular. Based on

Delicious.com
Organization: URLs, tags, share
or not, bundles
Search within network:
Hashtags: recent convention to
facilitate finding pertinent
material, esp. conventions,
symposiums, etc. (e.g.
#NEAJL09, #AJLChicago2009)

Other popular Sharing sites
Facebook--USA #1 (c Jennifer
Freer, business reference
librarian (Fan page)
YouTube--clips, channels,
instruction, DIY
Flickr--pictures, now vids
Twitter--microblogging, mark

Twitter conventions:
Follow someone with whom you
wish to have a conversation.
SLG--Personally follow or
subscribe to RSS feeds in order
to keep abreast of IT/KM. Many
feel only converse if have
something to say, or questions to
ask.

Twitter : microblogging
Short postings of 140 characters,
often including link or
"ReTweet" of information.
Links shorts via TinyUrl, Bit.ly
(metrics), tr.im
Expert advice: mashable.com,
WikiHow, Wikipedia, YouTube

When to use Twitter:
Email: For correspondence
(individual or community
[blast]). Contacts good starting
point for networking.
Twitter: for bulletins, oftentimes
subject-specific, e.g. Calendar,
blog, updates
Problem: Difficulty getting

Facebook
Great for:
Keeping in touch with valuable
contacts
Events (announcing, inviting)
sharing
Clubs (now Fan Pages)
Fundraising

Facebook apps
Visual bookshelf
weRead
ReelSocial
YouTube
Flickr (Picnik)

Other valuable e-groups
Google Groups: Librarians
without Boundaries
Yahoo! groups--free of charge,
have moderator (e.g. AJL-
NYMA, Sara Marcus)
NEW (Do not need to be a memb
er: ALAConnect

NY Librarians Meetup
Must request to join
Very findable on the Web
Once registered, get to other
groups, e.g. NY Hebrew
Language
Profile filters for each group.
Oftentimes personal v.

LinkedIn
Most professional social media
venue for promoting yourself,
esp. SILS students with second
careers.
NYLM hosting LearnIn with
InfoCurrent recruiter rep who
"stalks" potential librarians
through LI.

Bibliography
Morvile, Peter.
Ambient Findability: What We
Find Changes Who We Become.
O'Reilly Media, 2005.
Anderson, Chris. The Long Tale.
Hyperion, 2006.
Ellyssa Kroski Web 2.0 for
Librarians and Information

Bibliography (cont'd)
SmartComputing-- (monthly
popular mag for intermediate
IT/KM) Subscription provides
Technical Support account,
email alerts, reviews, DIY, and
online Q&A usergroup.
Liz Lynch Social Networking
website, booklets, books,
seminars