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Online Social Networking and Professional Development

Page history last edited by Kaijsa Calkins 15 years, 5 months ago

Online Social Networking and Professional Development 

 

Notes on Session:

Moderator: Joshua Neff, notes by Margaret Walsh

 

* When unable to attend multiple conferences, or even if you do, how do you keep the ideas alive?  Online, you can keep the discussions going 24/7.  LSW

* twitter discussion: ALA is bureaucratic, out of individual librarian's price range, maybe their own librarian's association?  So Joshua started a wiki, grew up with superhero comics. wanted to stay away from Librarian title, MLS doesn't equal Librarian, anyone who is a fan of libraries can be a member.  Thus, due to 'double dog dare' the Library Society of the World was born: http://thelsw.org --  password protected, can see who's there so prompts discussions

* Laura Crosset created  Meebo chat room (actually, I created the Meebo room--jmn), see also room etiquette rules (http://pegasuslibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/09/lsw-meebo-room-etiquette-one-womans.html), ie able to be uncensored with the password protected status

   * Faceclub page, LinkedIn group, Flickr group, Library Thing group,

 

* Bottom line: feels like he's getting more professional development online than co-workers or by attending prof conferences.  Why? due to 24/7 nature?  Off times like late Fri nights, weekends? LSW won trivia contest at ALA

 

* Who else has done social networking?

 

Q: Where does the professional development come in?  A: someone asked for web development help from a very small community, was able to find that help here.

 

Five weeks to a Social Library www.sociallibraries.com

 

Matt Hamilton, CU Boulder, (and an MLS student), web 2.0, social networks are good for determining what is useful--what others are researching and writing about. Asked questions online and get answers within a few  hours, has also seen presentation ideas formed here. Has formed connections with regional people inspired by the LSW model. Ranges from 'I want to do that, too' to 'we did that, here's how'.

 

 

Joshua has used the site to match presenters for prof confs.  Has used googledocs, and other online chat tools to create presentations prior to conferences.

 

* Linda Tietjen, Auraria Library, has weekly online faculty chat throughout Denver libraries, has delicious accounts, Adobe Breeze, some have webcams.  Their libraries are consolidating and these tools help connect all different types of folks.  cuonline

 

* brown bag sessions can be tough to get people together, perhaps this is an attempt to enable connections from desks instead of physically gathering.

* NING can be used to create your own site.  Library 2.0 Has anyone had any success with it?

(Added after session: Law librarians are networking on Ning at http://lawlibraries.ning.com/)

* FriendFeed  offers easier conversations

* LinkedIn as prof network, took business cards at a conf, then go to LinkedIn, add to your account, then you can maintain relationships throughout job changes, etc. 

 

* Use it as your permanent business card.  Can feed into friendfeed.

Facebook, is it generational?  not really, it comes down to what you want from social networks.  friendfeed is an aggregator, twitter on steroids.  If you make an rss feed, then can make friendfeed.  Can I use it within my corporate library, behind firewalls?  County Libraries don't get blocked from youtube, myspace, etc.  Joshua can use it at his library.  By being blocked, we are being hindered in my professional development, ie, losing virtual contacts.

 

* Robin, DU records management dept, any tool used is considered a historical record for the org/business.  Big brother of the corp is watching, maybe need to be discerning in use of blogs, etc.

 

* Joshua had an example of worker who blogged about a prior boss and it got back to her.  His library supported him.  Professional discussions can be business related, but then segue into lunch ideas, or recipes, etc.

 

* Facebook used by branch librarians to help make job more fun, to communicate what she's doing, has a photo porfolio of what's happening to upload.  Does use decorum in filtering herself, but that's common sense in your professional reputation whether online or in person.  Exciting New frontier!

 

* Teens use his library's Facebook page to connect.  better for organization to issue invites to events thru Facebook page, gets more involvement and interest from younger patrons.

* Douglas county, she started a Facebook page for campaign.

* Gets more respect from peers because they can see the projects she's doing from non-Librarians.

* Can ignore invites, they'll never know

 

* Issues do come up, ie, teens formed their own Facebook for friends of the library.  The official "Friends" board worry, it's not them, but why not encourage this generation to help educate others about the real life in a library?

 

* UCD faculty inviting friends, ie, her niece, she finds more than you really want to know.  Use caution in inviting friends to join.  Her faculty was encouraged to create a MySpace or FaceBook page.  Keep audience in mind! 

 

* Matt when he gets friended from students, he will not look at the personal parts of their pages.  He keeps the professional side of it, just responds to their questions as asked. 

* Facebook does enable different levels of privacy for friends.

* Do the younger people not care if others see it?  Judgement call?

* Provides education opportunity for library, ie, help them set their privacy levels, etc.

 

* Are students here looking for prof job soon, remember to cultivate the face to face relationships in addition to online relationships.  Etiquette goes a long way, gets internalized by others.  In person you can pick up on visual cues, but online it's so easy to mis-take intention or to convey opinions, etc. 

 

* Charitable reading, if you are offended, step back from it before flaming them.  Always respond by writing it out in Word, run spellcheck, edit, then post.  This helps prevent knee jerk reactions and encourages professional decorum just like you would in face to face interactions.

 

* For introverts, online really helps them to reach out and make friends.

* Joshua used online to create bridges to face to face friends.

* Google Goggle: new tool to edit your emails, to prevent 'drunk' emailing.  Can use this type tool to use with firewalls at workplace.

 

Q: Wants a gadget to add to LinkedIn; look at iGoogle, search Peak.  gadget embeds a page into iGoogle page for you to visit webpage. 

 

* iGoogle pages can be personalized to your preferences, ie world clocks, to do lists, fave comics, etc.  Check out www.unshelved.com!

 

* Adopt and release: sign up for something new, then let go of it once you've tried it and evaluated whether it has value for you.  If you release, you can always go back to it again.

 

* Concern: non Library 2.0 user, on facebook, once posted, it's out there forever, and are too far reaching.  For Librarians, privacy is big issue, so online uses can be worrisome.  Again, BE WARY of what you post any where.  May be able to back through other comments into your friendfeed or other private stuff out there.

 

* Can deactivate your Facebook account, or ask them to specifically delete your account.  There are edits on there, to correct mis-spellings or to rein back non professional items out there.

 

* Why not have a library program to educate users on this environment?  Matt hasn't done it yet, but certainly is good idea, and great medium to provide education.  Bring up at the library 2.0 session.

 

* Caution younger users as to their profiles out there that they may want to get a job some day. 

* By having your professional profiles out there, it can help potential employers to know who what your personality really is.

 

* In 21st century, librarians need to stop protecting info and advocate the fact that you shouldn't be persecuted for your own beliefs.

 

For those interested in more about this topic: Directory of Social Networks for Learning Professionals

 

 

***I found this article from Wired.com that I tagged awhile ago about Linked In that I thought you might find useful. Enjoy! ~Tara

 

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