Librarians Socially Networking

Social Networking
In Libraries:
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!
Melissa Kiser
Information Technology Librarian,
Allen County Public Library
(260) 421-1292
[email_address]
November 20, 2008

A little about me.
Melissa Kiser
Technology Librarian, Allen County Public Library
Began working in libraries in 1982 as a shelver
MSLS from University of Kentucky, 1987
Children’s librarian 1988-1995
Branch manager 1995-2008
IT librarian February 2008-present

Librarians Socially Networking
WHY?
HOW?
WHAT’S THE POINT?

Why are librarians doing it?

To know other librarians

To see what librarians are doing in other libraries
http://www.elkhart.lib.in.us/cgi-bin/index5.pl?&video=rogue_librarians&file=flash_player2d.pl

To see what other librarians are thinking about (steal this idea)

To bounce ideas off other librarians

To not be alone in the world

To get other librarians’ expertise on something new at my library

It’s cheaper than airfare!

It’s cheaper than airfare (and far less frustrating)!

How are librarians using it?

Twittering back and forth

Facebooking their libraries

Friendfeeding other librarians’ stuff to ourselves

Reading and commenting on librarians’ blogs

Highlighting others’ posts on your blog (Hey everyone, did you read this?)

Real yet virtual societies (Library Society of the World) http://thelsw.org/

Chat rooms: to talk shop and unwind

Collaborating through wikis

Friending each other on social networking sites

Friending each other on social networks

What’s the point?

We’re “going that way”

Our patrons are doing it

Everyone else is doing it

Librarians are focusing on what libraries are becoming, not what they’ve always been

“ Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Own Peril” http://rubiconconsulting.com/downloads/whitepapers/Rubicon-web-community.pdf
About 80% of user-generated content on the web, including comments and questions, is created by less than 10% of the users .
Despite the low number, online communities have enormous influence on almost all web users. Online comments and reviews posted by the enthusiasts are second only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for all web users.

Web discussion is theatre: it is a great way to interact with customers, because average customers watch and listen .
Even though you can’t get most of your customers to interact with you online, they watch what you do with the most frequent contributors, and they judge you based on it .

Half of all of the most frequent contributors are age 21 or younger.
If it sometimes feels like people online behave like children, that may be because many of the noise ones are .

Remember how it felt to say, “We no longer need books like this on our shelves” ?

Look how far we’ve come

Librarians Socially Networking

by Melissa Renner

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