Social networking at the UMHSLConnecting with and informing our clients.

AgendaWhy social network?Social networking sitesLooking dynamic with little or no effortTechnogeekery (or how it is all connected)ProblemsWhere can people find us?Next steps

Why social network?Branding / marketing / promoting the libraryBeing useful to our patrons in the places where they “live”Understanding our users betterConnecting with clientsGetting feedback from clients & responding

Being socialWhat should we be posting?Promoting library eventsPromoting library servicesLinking to new resourcesLinks to articles, videos, web sites of interestSolicit feedback / pollsNew additions to collectionMarketingAnswer questions

Social networking sitesFacebookLarge number of staff using this siteAnecdotal evidence that clients are using our computers to access Facebook.Had a UMHSL Facebook Group alreadyTwitterLots of buzz about Twitter in the news mediaLots of buzz in the library literature about the usefulness of this site.Little anecdotal evidence to suggest our clients are using it.

Social networking sitesFlickrPhoto archive for UMHSL.DeliciousPossible way to improve link maintenance on our pages.Still working out some kinks.PosterousCan post from your e-mail and it will autopost to a “blog” and a variety of social networking sites.Idea that we might use this site to highlight our renovations.

Looking dynamic (with no effort)Problem with social networking sites is the staff time to maintain them, HOWEVER …Almost constant stream of news and events from nTreePoint sections:Health Sciences Libraries – NewsHealth Sciences Libraries – EventsInfo-RXInfo-RNCapitalize on this and use the RSS feeds to populate social networking sites.

Why?To see if we can.To establish a UMHSL presence where our clients “live”.We think that people would appreciate receiving the kind of news and events we offer in another venue.

TechnogeekerynTreePoint RSS feeds third party applications which in turn feed Facebook and TwitterRSS2TwitterSocial RSSPosterous feeds:TwitterFacebook pageFlickr

How it all worksnTreePointPosterousTwitterRSS2TwitterRSSFacebook PageSocial RSSFlickr

Sit back relax and enjoy the ride!Demonstration!

nTreePoint!Not social but still usefulhttp://myuminfo.umanitoba.ca/index.asp?sec=488

Twitterhttp://twitter.com/healthlibrary/What?Library eventsLinks to articles, videos of interestSolicit feedbackNew additions to collectionMarketingAnswer questions

Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Winnipeg-MB/University-of-Manitoba-Health-Sciences-Libraries/98627719719

Posteroushttp://umhsl.posterous.com/

ProblemsEvents RSS feed – displays based on publication date not on event date. Investigate using YahooPipes! to mash the feed into submission.Social RSS – Facebook page – formatting is not pretty.Look at other third party apps to see if they can do any better.What do we do with Delicious?

DeliciousCould feed links into Facebook pageHave concerns about number of links … would this be annoying?Could feed selected links to Twitter

Where can people find us?Twitterhttp://twitter.com/healthlibrary/Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Winnipeg-MB/University-of-Manitoba-Health-Sciences-Libraries/98627719719Posteroushttp://umhsl.posterous.com/Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/umhsl/Delicioushttp://delicious.com/healthlibrary/Log in information available at the NJMHSL reference desk

Next stepsPromote our presence.Establish monitoring and updating procedures.Evaluate our effect or the utility of our presence on these sites.Consider offering a UMHSL presence on other social networking sites (MySpace; jUMp)Additional considerations?

Establish monitoring and updating procedures.