Reflections on Social Media

I have been a Facebook user for over two years.  Although a class on social media interested me a great deal, I admittedly had a hard time “getting into” other forms of social media.  As my time these days is fairly limited, I felt like I was on overload trying to keep up with everything.  As I moved through the course, however, I found that I became more comfortable balancing everything.  I actually grew to like Twitter as well; maybe because I personally tend to be brief when I speak the character limit felt comfortable to me.  As I result of this course, I not only learned about the potential uses for various forms of social media, but also got comfortable using them myself.

I do believe that social media will play a large role in the future of the library profession.  Whether or not Facebook and Twitter will be as popular five years from now as they are now remains to be seen.  I do feel that social media has entrenched itself in our society, so if it’s not Facebook and Twitter it will be something else.  (Google Plus?  Maybe not)

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Gaming in Libraries

In Suellen’s article “Gaming in Libraries” she outlines several ways in which video games can be beneficial to library patrons.  I believe she has a lot of valid points.  Although I personally do not have any firsthand experience with video games for instructional purposes (aside from the letter/number games my preschool-aged daughters play) I can see where there could be a lot of potential for video games promoting the library and its services.  I love video games and remember playing Nintendo during “homework breaks” at night during high school and college (20 years ago).  I really felt like that helped my mind stay fresh.  I would love to see firsthand the video games being used in conjunction with information literacy.

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Facebook, Privacy and Teens

This is a really fascinating topic because it is interesting to see how privacy is viewed across generations.  Teens and young adults have been brought up on technology and often their viewpoint on privacy has been molded in part by the use of technology and the internet.  I believe that many teens and young adults know how to adjust Facebook privacy settings; not just to the outside world, but, more likely, amongst their friends and groups of friends.  I do not believe that young people are always thinking about what the rest of the world sees and how the evidence of their Facebook page may be stored in the internet forever.   As these young adults move through life, it will be interesting to see how their participation in social media affects their job prospects and social lives.

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Social Tagging

In Hesham Allam’s article “Social Tagging as a Knowledge and Discovery Tool”, he discusses the benefits and drawbacks of social tagging as an alternative to indexing web-based content.  He highlights many worthwhile reasons to use social tagging, the most important of which, I think, is the ability of social tagging to provide current keywords.  For example, new terms are being created every day to describe technology, concepts and events.  Because of their newness, they are not likely to make it into a thesaurus or in the Library of Congress Subject Headings any time soon.  By having the ability to assign keywords relevant to these new terms, web searchers can locate related materials in an easier manner.

                On the flip side, however, the role of the professional cataloger or indexer should not be discarded.  Thesauri have been created for a reason and they cannot be entirely replaced with a set of user-provided keywords.  Perhaps the best of all worlds includes a system where a combination of thesaurus terms and social tags can live in harmony.

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Book Review: The Future of Reputation by Daniel J. Solove

This book is GREAT!  He gives lots of somewhat interesting (and humorous) examples of  cirucmstances people find themselves in when they are the victim of defamation or privacy loss on the internet.

I used Prezi (online version) to complete the presentation.  After so many years using Powerpoint, this takes some getting used to.  I would gather that the desktop version is more robust.

http://prezi.com/ju7fxg06acmy/the-future-of-reputation-by-daniel-j-solove/

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Following on Twitter

I am still getting used to Twitter.  I have recently started following these users/groups and I’m interested to see how it all goes:

oxygenxml – Oxygen XML Editor.  I use this editor at work very frequently.  It doesn’t appear that they are prolific tweeters, but it will be useful to know when there are updates and/or patches available.

DublinCore – Dublin Core metadata standard.  I refer to this standard frequently and always want to know more about it.

worldcatorg – WorldCat the “world’s largest library catalog.” 

MLB – Twitter page for Major League Baseball.  I am a total sports junkie and love anything baseball. 

unhlibrary – Twitter page for the library where I work.  I am hoping they continue to develop their social media use!

 

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To PhD or not to PhD

That is the question I have been pondering over the last couple of months.

I am happy to have found a full-time position at an academic library that I truly enjoy.  I know that in order to advance into a faculty librarian position here (and in many other libraries) I will be required to earn another masters degree or a PhD.  I have no problems with continuing my education.  I feel like my research and writing skills can always use improvement and personally, I enjoy going to school.  The question I ponder relates to what type of degree I will go for.   As I look at it, it seems as though a PhD might be a feasible option.  Am I crazy??

I work full time, have an hour commute (one way), and, oh yeah, I have a 3 1/2 and a 5 year old.  Again, am I crazy??  I know that I could earn another degree very slowly.  Maybe 5 years for a masters and 7 for a PhD.  So, it can be done with some extreme time management skills (and a few extra grey hairs). 

So, it really comes down to money (wish it grew on trees) and the type of degree/program I could realistically do.  I am not in a position to relocate.  So, the fact that there a only a handful of distance/online PhD programs in information science and/or information systems makes my decision a little easier.

The reality is, however, that I have a lot to think about.  Feel free to comment if you have any advice for me 🙂

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Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Knowledge Workers

In his blog, subtitled “The Business Aspect of IT,” Andrew McAfee writes about the current value of a college degree and the necessary skills that current and future students will be required to have to be successful in the work force.  McAfee states that students should be getting a well-rounded education; including strong written and verbal communication skills as well as strong math skills.  His opinion is that if students are lacking in these skills they will lose out on opportunities that may be outsourced to more skilled workers overseas.  He states, “The one recommendation I can make with confidence is to American parents: Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be under-skilled knowledge workers. Make sure they have tools that will be valued in the coming world of work.”

With the developments in technology and the changes in the country’s economic landscape, certainly there is a lot of speculation regarding American companies outsourcing their work overseas.  In the conversation, often what is brought up the most is the idea that foreign workers are less expensive.  But there is another aspect to this:  some overseas workers might have more skills than American educated ones.  McAfee is right in that we need to prepare students to compete in this venue.  This comes down to the focus on education and the type of education we are giving our youth.

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The Networked Librarian

Lee Rainie’s talk regarding libraries and the world of social media provides several insights for librarians who are maintaining an internet presence for their patrons.  The internet and, specifically, social media use, has an increasing number of users.  Information of all kinds is being shared through social media.  Therefore, librarians can act as aggregators for their patrons and collect information that is useful to them.  Certainly, this can be a challenging prospect as the types and the content of social media avenues are growing exponentially.

In his talk, Rainie relayed the quote, “Do what you do best and link to the rest.”  For a librarian, this can be useful in determining how time is allocated in the dissemination of information.  For one, maintaining a social media site for a library can be a way for librarians to “link to the rest.”  Providing informational links on a Facebook or Twitter page can be a relatively easy way for a library to share information to groups of users.  Or, perhaps, libraries can link to other libraries or organizations which have dedicated services that can be provided to their own patrons.  Certainly these decisions need to be made ahead of time to determine what a specific library “does best” and how to determine what is “linked to the rest.” 

What it comes down to is librarians can’t do it all.  There is too much information to manage.  The key is determining how to best serve patrons and where to help them find information quickly.  What social media allows libraries to do is to offer a portal of information sharing and two-way conversation between libraries and patrons.  Through this process, libraries can focus on their own unique services and also provide avenues for their patrons find “the rest.”

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The Pros and Cons of Social Media

“I strongly disagree that social media represent a dumbing down of America. It’s the opposite…it’s a way for us to become more informed, more connected and overall less ignorant. It’s a way for us to experience different lives, different worlds and different points of view in a way that’s never been possible, quite literally, in the history of the world. To call this tremendous capacity and facility to share information a ‘dumbing down’ is to miss the forest for the trees.” — Sasha Pasulka, blogger and founder of EvilBeetGossip.com

I love this quote, obtained from the article “Experts weigh the pros and cons of social media” by Sandra Ordonez.  I think that Pasulka has shed light on one of the major contributions of social media.  The ability to learn about other’s cultures and points of view from anytime or any place can only be beneficial to people.  Or, as Pasulka says, it makes us “less ignorant.”  Powerful stuff.

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