According to Alison Flood on guardian.co.uk "Libraries throughout the UK are testing the waters of Twitter as a way to both engage with their readers and dispel their image as fusty, silent enclaves staffed by old-fashioned introverts". [No doubt this article was written by a journalist in a short break between a long liquid lunch and a boozy night out in a Fleet Street public house.]
The article points out that librarians are using Twitter to network among themselves as well as communicate with potential users. As Stephanie Taylor points out (my last blog) there are barriers to librarians using Twitter etc at work. Also it is very difficult to build up a following among your target audience. The recently launched Sheffield Libraries tweet so far has only 23 followers and many of those are organisations like SINTO rather than members of the public.
However, barriers can be overcome and followers will grow in number. My message to anyone thinking of sticking a toe in is "Come on in - the water's lovely!"
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
Twittering Yorkshire
Recently the Bookseller had an article on Libraries populate the Twitterverse which said that:
Libraries are seizing on Twitter, the micro-blogging phenomenon, as a new way to
reach out to users and to network with colleagues and the wider book trade.
Mike Stores of Stockport Libraries posted messages on LIS-PUB-LIBS about libraries and related bodies that are using Twitter and listed almost 40 organisations.
When I last blogged about this on the 4th June I said I only knew of one public library in our area (Leeds) that was using Twitter.
Here is a list of libraries from all sectors in Yorkshire that I now know of who are using Twitter.
- Sheffield Libraies. @SheffLibraries
- Rotherham MBC Culture & Leisure (including libraries). @Cultureleisure
- Leeds Central Library. @leedscentlibs
- Business & Patents library Leeds @baplig
- Bradford Libraries & Information Services. @bradfordlibs247
- Leeds Metropolitan University Library. @LeedsMetLibrary
- University of Sheffield Library. @UniSheffieldLib
- Information Commons at the University of Sheffield @sheffinfocommons
Thursday, 11 June 2009
More Sheffield Floods!
I was at the Library Show yesterday with a SINTO coachload of librarians. The LIS could be called the "Not as good as last year show" which is what people always seem to say but it does still perform a useful role. Perhaps the idea of running it every other year might work.
I attended Phil Bradley's presentation about twitter . Phil gave a basic introduction to using Twitter and then looked at how it could be used by librarians for professional development and as a source of information. As Phil said - the first reaction to Twitter is "What is the point?" but as you get into it you find it is a useful tool and should not be ignored.
I will post some more about the show later but at one point I was at the Harwell Support Services stand, who specialise in restoration of collections after fire and flood damage, suggesting that SINTO might run an event on disaster planning.
On the trip back we ran into very heavy rainfall but I don't think anyone realised how bad it was. I got off the coach at Meadowhead (and was then stranded there for a couple of hours) so I don't know how everyone else managed. There was severe local flooding causing traffic disruption and I imagine many people found it difficult to get home. Sheffield Central Library suffered flooding and is closed until further notice.
Although it was not of direct help to us at the time (no-one having mobile internet access), Twitter was to be a useful source of information on developments. As Phil had pointed out earlier, Twitter is good for breaking news. A local blogger @sheffieldblog provided regular tweets on developments and the Sheffield City Council's Press Office @SCCPressOffice also provided valuable information including first news of the Central Library closure. The University of Sheffield used Twitter for news of the closure of the Information Commons.
I have always thought that public libraries should have a more active role in such situations. They could act as a valuable source of information to their local communities by seeking out information from websites, blogs and Twitter and passing it on. They are the link between the information rich and the information poor.
I attended Phil Bradley's presentation about twitter . Phil gave a basic introduction to using Twitter and then looked at how it could be used by librarians for professional development and as a source of information. As Phil said - the first reaction to Twitter is "What is the point?" but as you get into it you find it is a useful tool and should not be ignored.
I will post some more about the show later but at one point I was at the Harwell Support Services stand, who specialise in restoration of collections after fire and flood damage, suggesting that SINTO might run an event on disaster planning.
On the trip back we ran into very heavy rainfall but I don't think anyone realised how bad it was. I got off the coach at Meadowhead (and was then stranded there for a couple of hours) so I don't know how everyone else managed. There was severe local flooding causing traffic disruption and I imagine many people found it difficult to get home. Sheffield Central Library suffered flooding and is closed until further notice.
Although it was not of direct help to us at the time (no-one having mobile internet access), Twitter was to be a useful source of information on developments. As Phil had pointed out earlier, Twitter is good for breaking news. A local blogger @sheffieldblog provided regular tweets on developments and the Sheffield City Council's Press Office @SCCPressOffice also provided valuable information including first news of the Central Library closure. The University of Sheffield used Twitter for news of the closure of the Information Commons.
I have always thought that public libraries should have a more active role in such situations. They could act as a valuable source of information to their local communities by seeking out information from websites, blogs and Twitter and passing it on. They are the link between the information rich and the information poor.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Twitter as a resource for business information librarians
Twitter is a microblog - that is an application where you can post short messages which other people can then choose to follow. It can be used to keep your friend informed of what you are doing or it can be used professionally to disseminate information.
There is growing interest in the use of Twitter as a business tool in different areas. For example Phil Bradley recently wrote a piece in Library & Information Update about Twitter and librarians (April 2009). I will look at how Twitter might be a useful tool for the business information librarian.
One advantage of Twitter is that each post (tweet) has to be short, no more than 140 characters. As information overload and information obesity are major problems this enforced brevity can be very useful. Many people use Twitter to tell their followers about items they have posted on their blogs or websites so tweets can be seen as an alternative to RSS feeds. Regular checks of your Twitter feeds can keep you in touch with a wide range of useful sources of information.
Twitter is a form of social computing so it can be used not just for a one-way flow of information but as a networking tool to maintain a dialogue with colleagues. You can make use of this yourself and you can promote this to your users (e.g. small businesses which may feel isolated).
A probem with Twitter is that it is a very informal means of communication with many tweeters indulging in personal comments and asides. This is fun in small doses but can be a problem if you are trying to use it as a source of hard information. The business librarian probably needs to look at Twitter in three ways. First there are those tweets that are useful to you as a source of information. Second, tweeters that it would be useful for you to network with. Third, the wider world of business tweets that may be of interest to your users.
Sources of Information
(It is usual to prefix Twitter user names with @. When searching for people on Twitter do not use the @ prefix.)
@BIPC. British Library Business and Intellectual Property centre. Provides links to the new BIPC website.
@PATLIBUK. Supporting the UK's Inventers and Entrepreneurs with specialist patent and IP information and services
@baplig. Business and Patents. Leeds Library providing information for business, companies, inventors & students on patents, trademarks, copyright, designs, market research and much more.
@karenblakeman. Karen Blakeman. Karen is well known for her business information blog.
@intutebusiness. Intute Business. Covers the Intute Business website.
@BusinessLinkGov. Business Link
Networking
A useful way of developing a network using Twitter is to find someone of interest and look at who is following them and who they are following. Useful starting points might be:
@baplig (listed above)
@cityinfogroup. CiG A community for .people who work in and around the City of London, and utilise business and commercial information.
@tadpole99. Alison Williams. Business librarian by day. Haiku librarian by night.
General business tweets
There are of course thousands of these! Just Tweet It (http://justtweetit.com) is a directory of people who tweet organised by categories. However many of the categories contain hundreds of entries and most will be US based. There is a Twitter for Business section which includes "50 ideas on using Twitter for Business".
Here is a small selection of tweets I have come across:
@s4startups
@jennifersmith
@women_unlimited
@smallbiztweets
@businessnews
@TimesBusiness
And last, but not least - don't forget @SINTOcarl for keeping up-to-date with all things SINTO.
There is growing interest in the use of Twitter as a business tool in different areas. For example Phil Bradley recently wrote a piece in Library & Information Update about Twitter and librarians (April 2009). I will look at how Twitter might be a useful tool for the business information librarian.
One advantage of Twitter is that each post (tweet) has to be short, no more than 140 characters. As information overload and information obesity are major problems this enforced brevity can be very useful. Many people use Twitter to tell their followers about items they have posted on their blogs or websites so tweets can be seen as an alternative to RSS feeds. Regular checks of your Twitter feeds can keep you in touch with a wide range of useful sources of information.
Twitter is a form of social computing so it can be used not just for a one-way flow of information but as a networking tool to maintain a dialogue with colleagues. You can make use of this yourself and you can promote this to your users (e.g. small businesses which may feel isolated).
A probem with Twitter is that it is a very informal means of communication with many tweeters indulging in personal comments and asides. This is fun in small doses but can be a problem if you are trying to use it as a source of hard information. The business librarian probably needs to look at Twitter in three ways. First there are those tweets that are useful to you as a source of information. Second, tweeters that it would be useful for you to network with. Third, the wider world of business tweets that may be of interest to your users.
Sources of Information
(It is usual to prefix Twitter user names with @. When searching for people on Twitter do not use the @ prefix.)
@BIPC. British Library Business and Intellectual Property centre. Provides links to the new BIPC website.
@PATLIBUK. Supporting the UK's Inventers and Entrepreneurs with specialist patent and IP information and services
@baplig. Business and Patents. Leeds Library providing information for business, companies, inventors & students on patents, trademarks, copyright, designs, market research and much more.
@karenblakeman. Karen Blakeman. Karen is well known for her business information blog.
@intutebusiness. Intute Business. Covers the Intute Business website.
@BusinessLinkGov. Business Link
Networking
A useful way of developing a network using Twitter is to find someone of interest and look at who is following them and who they are following. Useful starting points might be:
@baplig (listed above)
@cityinfogroup. CiG A community for .people who work in and around the City of London, and utilise business and commercial information.
@tadpole99. Alison Williams. Business librarian by day. Haiku librarian by night.
General business tweets
There are of course thousands of these! Just Tweet It (http://justtweetit.com) is a directory of people who tweet organised by categories. However many of the categories contain hundreds of entries and most will be US based. There is a Twitter for Business section which includes "50 ideas on using Twitter for Business".
Here is a small selection of tweets I have come across:
@s4startups
@jennifersmith
@women_unlimited
@smallbiztweets
@businessnews
@TimesBusiness
And last, but not least - don't forget @SINTOcarl for keeping up-to-date with all things SINTO.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Libraries using Twitter & Facebook
Public libraries in our region (Yorkshire and East Midlands) have not on the whole been early adopters of Web 2.0 technologies. At the SINTO Members' Day on 26th June there will be a presentation from Rotherham Libraries about their use of Facebook and Leeds Central Library has a Twitter feed. Apart from that I know of no other public libraries using these tools. (see the list provided by Mike Stores on the JISC Lis-pub-libs list.)
Does that indicate that public libraries in our region are old-fashioned and out-of-date? Or does the low uptake mean that most libraries have concluded that this is just not an effective marketing tool and there is no point in wasting resources on it? The Leeds Twitter feed has 93 followers (i.e. people who are receiving the tweets) but over half of these are other libraries or organisations and only 40 are individuals who may, or may not, be library users in Leeds. This does not suggest that Twitter is having a large impact in the target audience.
Twitter is often portrayed as a useful way of communication with a younger demographic and one which libraries need to reach out to - but if the basic library offer is not attractive to this group then no amount of Twittering will work on its own. However, as part of a package including greater use of e-books and on-line services, Twitter could be a useful tool. When we walk through the doors of our libraries and into our place of work we cut ourselves off from our customers. No matter how good we are at doing our job we always have to reach out to our customers and potential customers. Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools are one way of doing this.
Does that indicate that public libraries in our region are old-fashioned and out-of-date? Or does the low uptake mean that most libraries have concluded that this is just not an effective marketing tool and there is no point in wasting resources on it? The Leeds Twitter feed has 93 followers (i.e. people who are receiving the tweets) but over half of these are other libraries or organisations and only 40 are individuals who may, or may not, be library users in Leeds. This does not suggest that Twitter is having a large impact in the target audience.
Twitter is often portrayed as a useful way of communication with a younger demographic and one which libraries need to reach out to - but if the basic library offer is not attractive to this group then no amount of Twittering will work on its own. However, as part of a package including greater use of e-books and on-line services, Twitter could be a useful tool. When we walk through the doors of our libraries and into our place of work we cut ourselves off from our customers. No matter how good we are at doing our job we always have to reach out to our customers and potential customers. Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools are one way of doing this.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Twitter 2
At the beginning of April I blogged about setting up a Twitter account. Well how is it going? There is no doubt that Twitter is addictive. It works at levels 2 and 3 of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - friendship and esteem! It is also a useful professional tool if, like me, you want to keep in touch with a wide range of professional news and thinking. I am currently following 28 organisations. Some of these are professional organisations such as MLA and JISC which occasionally tweet about news and activities. CILIP does not have an official Twitter account but I am following Debbie Raven's Gazette tweets, the West Midlands CILIP Branch, Youth Libraries Group and UKEIG.
I am following several libraries including Sheffield University, the Information Commons at Sheffield University, Leeds Metropolitan University, Manchester Libraries, Leicestershire Libraries and Newcastle Libraries. They provide information about their services for their own users.
Library Web, the rolling news site for UK public libraries, is a useful feed as is the Credo feed which provides a daily quote or factoid plus the occasional news item.
I have now discovered several librarians who tweet. Some of these are a useful source of information such as Tom Roper, Neil Ford and Phil Bradley. Others are more of a personal nature.
My tweets are being followed by 34 individuals and organisations. Many of these are a direct response to my following them. Others are librarians who have discovered me through various sources. As a result of my tweet about Sheffield Libraries' LGBT history source guide I am being followed by Daily Gay which is cool but I suspect they will loose interest as I don't have a lot to say about LGBT issues.
My main concern was to develop links with local libraries and librarians as part of the SINTO community of interest but I have to admit that I don't have many links so far. The University of Sheffield has taken to Twitter with enthusiasm. As well as the library tweets mentioned above, several members of staff including Martin Lewis, head of library services, have accounts. Apart from that there are only a handful of others.
So is Twitter a useful professional tool? It can be criticized in many ways. It is too ephemeral, personal ("What are you doing?") and brief (140 characters) to allow you to say anything serious. Yet these are also its strengths. In many workplaces the casual contacts you make at the water cooler, photocopier or in the lift are often an important source of information and Twitter is a way of expanding this. At its best, the haiku of a tweet is better than the sonnet, or epic poem, of more formal communication channels.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/SINTOcarl
I am following several libraries including Sheffield University, the Information Commons at Sheffield University, Leeds Metropolitan University, Manchester Libraries, Leicestershire Libraries and Newcastle Libraries. They provide information about their services for their own users.
Library Web, the rolling news site for UK public libraries, is a useful feed as is the Credo feed which provides a daily quote or factoid plus the occasional news item.
I have now discovered several librarians who tweet. Some of these are a useful source of information such as Tom Roper, Neil Ford and Phil Bradley. Others are more of a personal nature.
My tweets are being followed by 34 individuals and organisations. Many of these are a direct response to my following them. Others are librarians who have discovered me through various sources. As a result of my tweet about Sheffield Libraries' LGBT history source guide I am being followed by Daily Gay which is cool but I suspect they will loose interest as I don't have a lot to say about LGBT issues.
My main concern was to develop links with local libraries and librarians as part of the SINTO community of interest but I have to admit that I don't have many links so far. The University of Sheffield has taken to Twitter with enthusiasm. As well as the library tweets mentioned above, several members of staff including Martin Lewis, head of library services, have accounts. Apart from that there are only a handful of others.
So is Twitter a useful professional tool? It can be criticized in many ways. It is too ephemeral, personal ("What are you doing?") and brief (140 characters) to allow you to say anything serious. Yet these are also its strengths. In many workplaces the casual contacts you make at the water cooler, photocopier or in the lift are often an important source of information and Twitter is a way of expanding this. At its best, the haiku of a tweet is better than the sonnet, or epic poem, of more formal communication channels.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/SINTOcarl
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