Thoughts of the Week, Part 2

I Could Really Use a Nap

I never thought I could read so much in three weeks.  The phrase “information overload” has taken on a whole new meaning for me… and I am already considering taking another Maymester class next year.  Maybe it is all of the new technology we are covering in class.  I have always stayed away from social media because I do not see the point, but I kind of like watching my Twitter feed.  I liked wrestling with Joomla and creating something that looked like an honest-to-goodness website.  Now, I am waiting for my Assignment 3 interviewee to email me about the questions I sent him.  All of this in less than a month.

Meanwhile, I have also spent the past month preparing for the chaos that descends upon the library every summer.  We call it the Summer Reading Program.  Every moment not spent reading articles for class has been spent drawing and painting and preparing for a Superhero Story Time.  My coworker, a brave volunteer, and I finally finished decorating the library yesterday and now we are ready to kick things off tomorrow.  I know it is going to be a blast.  Librarians, library assistants, and library volunteers really are superheroes!

And I could really use a nap…

Here's a peak at what we've been working on for the past two months.

Level 1: Read 10 books or 5 hours.

Level 2: Read 20 books or 10 hours.

This is my favorite wall.

Lesson Learned: Nothing sticks to brick.
And glue dots don't stick to butcher paper.

We ran out of walls.
This one is behind the desk.

Thoughts of the Week

I have just completed my first week of class and already have learned much more than I expected.  I have learned how to tweet and how to set up a blog, which were both completely foreign concepts to me before.  Hopefully by the end of Maymester, I will have learned some of the finer points of writing a blog post.  I have also learned how helpful and fun it is to have contacts in both public and academic libraries.  Through tweets and mile-long discussion threads, I have read a variety of different opinions and experiences courtesy of my classmates.  Already, I have dozens of ideas for future library displays and crafts, library Twitter accounts, and new methods of handling the more bizarre patron interactions.  This just from viewing a few pictures on Twitter and reading madly to keep up with discussion assignments.

I was more than a little nervous about taking my first Maymester during a month that is already hectic with Summer Reading Program preparations, but so far the pace seems to agree with me.  That mild state of constant panic over due dates keeps me from procrastinating and the friendliness and thoughtfulness of my classmates keeps me interested.

One week down, two more to go!

*Image from http://secondchancetodream.com

Timeless Tweets: Of Libraries and Twitter

Friends with Libraries

Reading through this week’s assigned articles about the role of social media in libraries has caused me to ponder some ethical questions.  Bodnar and Doshi (2011) write about Georgia Tech’s library, which has a Twitter account and actively seeks out Tech students on Twitter so the library can follow their accounts and be on the lookout for potential reference questions.  While it is great that Georgia Tech is embracing social media and using available resources to connect with their patrons, is it ethical for a library (or any organization) to follow an individual’s social media account, even if it is set to the public option?  Bodnar and Doshi raise this same question, stating that while following student accounts allows the library to “actively engage” students and “seek out  opportunities for reference and other library-related interactions,” is it ethical to follow student timelines that “contain profane, explicit, or private information?”  Should it only be up to individuals to choose to follow or not to follow the social media account of a library or any other public organization?

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Now for the next question.  Reading Verishagen and Hank’s article about how libraries use Twitter, the part that stood out to me most was the mention that the Library of Congress has been archiving public tweets since 2010 and has access to all of public tweets posted since Twitter’s beginning in 2006.

While I know that what is posted on the Internet is there to stay, should something like this be explicitly archived and organized, as in the case of the Library of Congress Twitter archive?  Should the public have a say in whether or not their tweets are archived – or is the fact that they are posting it on the Internet tacit permission to save it for possible future research?  The Internet keeps everything forever, but having tweets archived and available for research purposes is different from having tweets lost and floating somewhere in the tangles of the Web.

For those who do not want their tweets archived, however, there is another option!  It is called #NoLoC and is a registered Twitter app that will automatically delete a tweet after 23 weeks, before the tweet is sent to the Library of Congress in the 24^th week (Mansilla, 2010).  The application is available at http://noloc.org/ and by including #noloc, #noarchive, #noindex, or even #no in a tweet, you can prevent your tweets from being archived by the Library of Congress.

References

Bodnar, J. & Doshi, A. (2011). Asking the right questions: A critique of Facebook, social media, and 

libraries. Public Services Quarterly.

Mansilla, N. (2010, May 16). #NoLoc.org – Delete that tweet, lest it be immortal! Retrieved May 18, 2015, from http://mansilla.com/2010/05/noloc-org-delete-that-tweet-lest-it-be-immortal/

Verishagen, N. & Hank, C. (2014). Are there birds in the library? The extent of Twitter adoption and use by Canadian academic libraries. First Monday, 19(11), 115-129. doi: 10.5210/fm.v19i11.4945 http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4945/4161

Hello, everyone.  In this blog, I plan to chronicle my experiences in my first Maymester class - Applied Technologies in Library Practice.  Over the following weeks I will write about Web 2.0 technologies, their impact on libraries, and creative and effective ways to use these tools.  Full confession?  I have avoided social media in my personal life.  My only experience comes from a Twitter account I haven't used in four years.  However, I have dipped my toes into the deep pool of social media recently through regularly updating my library's Facebook page.  I hope that this class will teach me how to successfully provide interesting and informative content and use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about libraries.