INTRODUCTION
This week we will focus on Online Communities (aka: Social Networking) and how they’ve changed the way we use technology to communicate with each other. Instead of calling all of your friends one-by-one to share some news (remember Telephone Hour in Bye Bye Birdie?*) or emailing colleagues one-by-one or on a listserv to ask for help, we can now post a status update and connect with all our online friends & family all at once. You can share all kinds of information, including personal & professional news, links to interesting articles and websites, great videos, photos and more.
Many of you are already members of online communities, the most popular ones these days being Facebook and Twitter. But there are many others out there! Some revolve around personal interests such as knitting, photography and reading. While others are more professional in nature: LinkedIn, WebJunction, Classroom 2.0, Teacher-Librarian Ning and ALA Connect.
Some people love online communities, others hate them, some just aren’t sure what to make of it all. But regardless of our personal opinions, we can’t deny that online communities are a big part of the world we live in today. Take a look at this video and see what you think, are any of the facts presented surprising to you?
And of course, our friends at Common Craft have a wonderful little video explaining the basics of social networking!
(If you can’t view this YouTube video, view the video on the Common Craft site.)
And one for Twitter too!
(If you can’t view this YouTube video, view the video on the Common Craft site.)
LIBRARIES, LIBRARY STAFF & ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Participating in online communities has benefits for each of us as library staff and also as a way for connecting with the users of our libraries.
As individuals, social networks help us connect with other library staff in our local communities and around the world. This can provide an amazingly rich source of innovative ideas and support. Stumped with a problem that you can’t solve or need to brainstorm with someone? Maybe someone in your online communities has faced this same problem and can share some good ideas. And you can do the same for them. We all have expertise, let’s share it!
Going to a conference & don’t know many other people attending? Connect with other attendees ahead of time. It’s a great way to get to know people before a conference or workshop. I’m just amazed at the number of online friends who have become “in person” friends & valued colleagues as a result of connecting online and then meeting at conferences.
For a library, having a presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks is one more way to reach out to the library’s community. Use these tools to announce upcoming programs, discuss an upcoming budget vote, highlight great new resources, hold a book discussion online, ask for feedback on your services, run a trivia contest, provide a weekly list of new titles, answer reference questions and so on. Your patrons and potential patrons are on Facebook and are using Twitter. Really, they are! Provide them with information about library services and a way to connect to the library staff in a space that they already use often.
- Your “Library” Doesn’t Participate in Social Media, But Your People Do – Discussion of how social media can be used internally to help staff connect.
- Future of Libraries 2010: Social Media Capital (Patrick Sweeney) – Discusses the value of using social media in libraries.
- Tech Tuesdays: Librarians Using Facebook! – Fun video asking some librarians why they use facebook.
Examples of how libraries are using these services:
- Night Owls – Cuyahoga county (OH) Public Library runs a book discussion on their Facebook page.
- JoCo Library Teens – Johnson County (KS) Public Library sponsored group on GoodReads.
- Luv2Read online book group – Book group for Teens on LibraryThing, sponsored by San Jose Public Library.
- David C Barrow Elementary Media Center – Facebook page to connect with parents & teachers.
- Half Hollow Hills Community Library – Nice example of how to customize your Facebook page.
- Weill Cornell Medical College LibraryNEJM – In addition to lots of other information, they provide a feed of the latest articles from ther New England Journal of Medicine.
- Columbus Metropolitan Library – Great Facebook presence includes twitter stream, new updates, map of library locations and more.
- UIUC twitter stream & UIUC web page – Twitter account being reused as news feed for library web page.
- ‘Embedded Librarian’ on Twitter Served as Information Concierge for Class – Chronicle of Higher Ed.
- EdTech chat – Twitter chat that happens every Tuesday, though people post tweets with this hashtag all week long.
- Teacher Librarian chat – follow the hashtag #tlchat
- Popular Education Hashtags – lots more education hashtags to follow.
Privacy Concerns
- Facebook Privacy Settings For Dummies I checked out all the settings covered in this video and they’re still accurate. But be aware that Facebook changes things all the time, it’s a good idea to check your settings now and then.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES TO EXPLORE
- Facebook– The most visible social network. Connect with friends, family and colleagues. Share news, photos, discussions.
- Social Networking – And of course, our friends at Common Craft have a wonderful little video explaining the basics of social networking! (If you can’t view this YouTube video, view the video on the Common Craft site.)
- Libraries Using Facebook – Facebook page for libraries to share facebook ideas.
- Facebook Help Center
- Facebook Pages – how to set up a page for your organization or business.
- Facebook 101 – getting started with Facebook
- Facebook sharing and liking of library webpages
- Twitter– Short status updates of 140 characters or less. Build a network of colleagues to share news, links, ideas. A rich source of information and ideas.If you decide to join twitter, tweet about this program and use the hashtag #learncdlc. (what’s a hashtag??)
- Intro to Twitter from Common Craft (If you can’t view this YouTube video, view the video on the Common Craft site.
- Twitter for Teachers – Support Videos – Not just for teachers! Steps you through getting your account started and how to use twitter.
- Hashtags for Beginners
- Libraries using Twitter
- A Word About Twitter Lists – Phil Bradley steps you through the why and how of creating lists of Twitter.
- Linked In – Designed to help professionals connect with each other to generate job leads and collaboration opportunties. Includes discussion forums on a broad range of topics.
- GoodReads, LibraryThing – Great book related social networks.
- WebJunction – Terrific resources for libraries and good discussions.
- ALA Connect – Are you an ALA member? Then make sure you take a look at ALA Connect. You can connect with other members of the committees, sections and roundtables that you belong to.
- Classroom 2.0 & Teacher-Librarian Ning – both great networks for educators.
- Ravelry – For all you knitters & crocheters out there.
LEARNING ACTIVITY
This week’s activity is to explore an online community that interests you. It could be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any of the many that are listed in the section above. You could join a new one, or explore new options of one that you’re already part of. The goal of this lesson is threefold:
- Help you feel more comfortable with how online communities work.
- Have you check out the privacy options of the community you choose.
- Think about how you can use them to help connect with existing library patrons and reach out to potential patrons.
Option 1: Join a new online community and explore how it works. Facebook is a good place to start. We even have a Learn with CDLC Facebook page for you to explore.
Option 2: Explore new features of a community you already belong to. See if there are other libraries and librarians in the community. How might it be used to help promote library services?
FOR BOTH OPTIONS
- Share what service you joined by posting in the comments below. That way others can ‘friend’ you.
- Pay attention to the privacy settings!!
- See if you can find some other librarians or libraries who are using that community.
- Check out the Learn with CDLC Facebook Page
FOR YOUR BLOG POST THIS WEEK
- Please label your post “Thing 4 : Online Communities”
- Comment on your experience with online communities, do you think they’re valuable?
- How can libraries use them to connect with customers?
MORE RESOURCES
- Your “Library” Doesn’t Participate in Social Media, But Your People Do – Discussion of how social media can be used internally to help staff connect.
- Tech Tuesdays: Facebook Security – I just checked out all the settings covered in this video and they’re still accurate. But be aware that Facebook changes things all the time, it’s a good idea to check your settings now and then.
- List of Social Networking Websites
- Tech Tuesdays: Librarians Using Facebook!
* Thanks to 23 Things Kansas for that great ByeByeBirdie video idea and for much of this week’s content.
Learn with CDLC 
For the official “assignment” I “liked” the CDLC Facebook page. I loved the first YouTube video, I thought it showed how quickly our world is changing and even sparked an office discussion of who Gen X, Y & Z are! I didn’t know we were up to “Z” already!
Even though I taught myself Facebook Privacy 101 not long ago, I found these reminders helpful and I was prompted to revisit my privacy settings and tweak a bit.
One of the issues with FB privacy for me has been the separation between personal life and work life. As people from work “friend” you, are you sure you want to share as much with them as your family and outside friends? I wanted to be “social” but not too social! I created a “list” on FB that I called “Limited” and specifically edited the privacy for those folks differently, to maintain a level of decent sharing!
I completely agree with the dilemma of facebook “friending” fellow co-workers. I think your solution of limiting what you share to certain groups is great. Thanks for sharing.
I joined goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/kebrent
I have joined LinkedIn, Goodreads, and Facebook. I don’t think I have the time, energy, or interest to join Twitter.
I joined goodreads and linkedin. That’s probably all the friends I can deal with at the moment
laura clark
great job Laura!!!
Just discovered that GoodReads has almost 200 library groups! And I’ve just be ‘friending’ you guys in GoodReads, if you don’t want to be friends, that’s ok. 🙂
Feel free to friend me. I can be found via catalogthat or my name Jennifer Ferriss. Facebook, Twitter, GetGlue, 4Square
And like Jennifer, you can find me on lots of social networks as pollyalida or Polly Farrington. Feel free to friend me if I don’t get around to friending you first!
I’ve been gradually working through the Thing 4 page, and each time Firefox has crashed. I’ve had no problems with other websites this week. It has crashed 3 times in the last 15 minutes, and the third time it was unable to restore the tabs. Seems strange to me. Does anybody have any suggestions?
That is weird! This page has YouTube videos, but then, other Thing pages have as well. Sometimes browsers do just go wacky for reasons we mere mortals can’t figure out. What I do then is try the same page in another browser. I have IE, Firefox, Chrome & Safari (I realize that’s overkill for most of us!). If it works in another browser, then I reboot the computer and try the cranky browser again.
I’ve looked at the code for the page and can’t see anything peculiar about it, though that doesn’t mean that there isn’t!
Let us know what happens in another browser, that will help me try to sort it out.
I have also added the Learn with CDLC page to our list of “Likes” on our Library Facebook page. We created the page about a year ago, and would like to use it more when I can figure out the hows and whys. Our Twitter feed is going great guns with over 500 followers, of whom we follow about 175. As our long range building renovation project moves forward, I hope to use these communities to document and share the progress. Plan to explore a couple other online communities as time permits and see what they might have to offer us.
FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Waterford-NY/Waterford-Public-Library/87104396148
Twitter: @watpublibrary
I am already on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Goodreads. I haven’t posted anything on Goodreads, though – I joined because my daughter asked me to. I will start to use it now. I also think I’ll join Twitter. I have found Twitter to be annoying in the past, but will give it a second chance after going through this lesson.
The website I decided to explore is Classroom 2.0. I chose this site for two reasons, I have an account with Facebook and I am an elementary teacher as well as a library assistant. My membership with Classroom 2.0 is pending. They check to make sure you are who you say you are. I guess that is a good thing. I hope I am accepted, there are teacher from all over the world on that site. It would be great to share ideas with teachers from other parts of the world.
I have been on Facebook for a while to stay in touch with out of state friends, for the most part. Just this week I was able to see another posistive about it. I will be attendinga an NEH workshop in CA in June and have not been able to get a hotel reservation at the recommended site. Wrote an inquiry on the workshop Facebook page and, lo and behold, an answer within 24 hours!
Glad for the tip about separating work and social friends with different setting. That had stopped me from “friending” work friends. I will have to try that.
Goodreads is the site the CAPRegion YA lit group uses for their book postings. I don’t get much time to look at it for anything else until the summer, but it’s pretty straight forward.
Not sure what to do with Linked In, but I am a member.
Yes- I too am interested in Linked In tho am not REALLY sure what it’s all about-especially since I may be searching for a job soon!
Was already on Facebook-joined about 4 years ago when my oldest daughter was studying in Mexico for the year and I wanted to be able to see the fabulous pictures of all the places she was visiting. The files were too big to send in e-mail all the time and she certainly could not afford (and probably wouldn’t have wanted) to have them all developed, so she made picture albums and we could view them that way:) I too struggle with the friending thing- not wanting to see some of the stuff on there and yet wanting to be on for other things, not wanting to offend some people-so thanks for the tip on the LIMITING Mindy! I’ll try that…
Joined GoodReads to find out what that’s all about and the Classroom 2.0 sounds like something I might be interested in too! Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone!
I really am enjoying the Goodreads site. I love to learn about what people are reading and if it is worth my time. I love the idea of using social networking to start an online book club. I already belong to Facebook, but I primarily use that as a way to keep up with family and friends. I created the Twitter account as an alternative to liking and friending a large number of businesses on my Facebook account. This way, I do not have to mix the two. I do like the idea of limiting the access of certain people. Rereading the Facebook security page was a good reminder. One caveat is many districts, including ours, blocks Facebook access in the school.
Lori- I am looking for some friends on Goodreads, what user name are you using? I’m Pollyreads. (I’m not Polly Farrington, have been mistaken identity in the past, I’m the other Polly)
Polly, Just sent a friend request on GoodReads. Let’s keep people confused. 🙂
I am on shelfari- never tried goodreads. Anyone know how they compare?
I joined Library Thing as ginny.p
I never make public profiles and this was so easy. No email required. Just choose a name and password.
Joined LinkedIn – Public Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-acker/32/a48/110
I have a personal facebook and goodreads account http://www.goodreads.com/amanda85 and the Schuylerville Library is on Facebook: Schuylerville Public Library and Twitter: schuylervillelib.
I have a facebook account but I use it only for family and close friends, don’t really want to mix work with that. I also have an account with Shelfari, but I haven’t updated in a long time. I will try Goodreads. Facebook is blocked at school, our students would be on it all day long if we didn’t. We don’t block youtube because many teachers use it for classes, but it is also another place that students spend a lot of unproductive time.
The video was very interesting and it really is a wake up call that these social networks are here to stay. Those guys are sure making a ton of $$.
I have been meaning to join ALA connect for some time now, so I finally did. I am not finding many “friends” yet though!
Just sent you a ‘friend’ request on ALA Connect.
I joined Goodreads, since it will help me keep up with popular books and see what others are interested in. Also thought it would be the one I’d be most likely to re-visit.
Sorry I’m a little late with this…
I was able to view the David C Barrow Elementary Media Center link on Facebook and thought about how many possibilities a library Facebook page could open. Then I went to check to see if any other elem. schools have a presence on Facebook and immediately was blocked by our district’s content filter. Facebook is a no-no for now. I am wondering if any of our local elementary schools have a Facebook page? I currently have a Facebook presence for friends and family.
I can’t see Twitter as something I would like. It already drives me nuts when my Facebook friends enter those little 140ish character bits like “I’m making soup tonight”. Why not tell what kind of soup and share the recipe when you’re posting to 200 some friends? (One of my nieces has over 600 friends. Yikes!) If you want someone specifically to know those kind of insignificant details, why not just text it to them? I guess I “don’t get” Twitter.
I looked at GoodReads and LibraryThing. I didn’t join either one, but I already belong to Shelfari and share books with friends through that site. I like it a lot. It’s been very helpful to me in keeping track of what I’ve read, what I want to read, and what my friend’s are reading. I added my “shelf” to my blog.
Agreed, those posting soup tweets should include the link to the recipe! Twitter takes a while to get a handle on. It’s really useful for getting help with a problem (soooo many librarians tweet) or just to share a great idea, a link to an interesting article. And yes, some silly stuff too. Twitter lists help make it more useful. I have a few people in a Friends list – they’re the folks whose trivia I do care about (soup recipes, I’ve got the flu, etc.) Others who post tons of links to great resources are in my Links list. Gardening gurus in another and so on.
Have you seen this funny cartoon on the twitter life cycle: http://cogdogblog.com/2007/05/01/tweety-bird/
That said, twitter isn’t for everyone! As they say, YMMV!
I finally bought mifi so I now how 3G internet at my home. I’ll try to catch up on these lessons. I joined Goodread as my start to social networking. I would like to make a library page on Facebook as soon as I sit down and talk with the youth services person so we can work on it together.
How do you like your mifi service? I have one too, but it’s so slow it makes me crazy. I need to figure out a way to get stronger wifi through my whole house. Probably easy to do, but never seem to have the time to figure it out!
My daughters signed me up for Facebook and I have connected with many old friends and relatives who I haven’t been in touch with for many years. I find it quite a support system- Also I can check up on my kids!!! lol Mary
That’s terrific you found old friends via Facebook, easy way to keep up to date with them. My brother signed my mother up for Facebook. She has fun stalking all of us now! 🙂
I’m on Goodreads! I think this is my URL: http://www.goodreads.com/annie_liz
Feel free to friend me! I’ve been on Goodreads awhile but haven’t really linked up with many people. I’ve mostly used it more to remember what I’ve read rather than a social tool…
I have tried a number of the online communities. One community was Second Life – it was odd and took up too much memory. ALA had an island – but this was awhile ago.
I have a facebook account – I try to post information regarding libraries, library services, and information that would help foster new ideas. I have no idea who read these posts or if they have any impact. I keep abreast of the comings and goings of NYLA, PLA, and ALA friends (as well as family). I do not take it as an insult that my children figured out ways to block me.
I really tried to like Twitter – but only strange people wanted to follow me. People seem to feel a need to post what ever is in their mind at the moment. Maybe I am too old to fully grasp it – but it is too much information, too fast. And I never remember my twitter password. This online community makes news old very quickly – too fleeting. I was not a child of Sesame Street – my attention span needs more time to adjust.
Webjunction is a powerful tool. People can connect and get professional information from experts. It’s fun to see what is going on all over the country.
ALA connect really needs to change the way people log in — its harder to get into it than my bank account. I hear its getting better, but the layers are confusing to me – I admit.
What I really want to share with everyone in the public library world, PLA (Public Library Association) has Communities of Practice. This is a way all people in the library world can share and gain information regarding public libraries. In addition, it is a way to get involved with PLA without leaving the comforts of their computer keyboard and screen.