LinkedIn - should we be in the loop?

Loved this image but then was quite a smurf fan when little! Thanks to 99zeros via FlickrCC. Anyway to LinkedIn which I knew little about though had come across when working on NACO authority proposals for my Legal Deposit Libraries Shared Cataloguing. Can be quite useful for this! LinkedIn seems to me to some extent the other extreme from facebook. It has a much more professional/business feel and outlook. Profiles can look quite like CVs and I believe the site has been used for looking for jobs, conference speakers, etc. Libraries, however, need to question at least 2 things 1) Are their users here - for somewhere like CUL which operates as a Research Library for academics and not primarily as a lending library for undergraduates they may well be. 2) Do our users who are here expect to find us here? - do they associate libraries with business? If a library is participating in LinkedIn this would probably need to be advertised via other means -RSS feed on web page for example. Haven't spent as much time looking at this as I would like but think there might be potential for making contact with publishers, electronic journal providers etc. - finding out about what they offer, which new ones exist, keeping up to date with new technological innovations through a professional network and indeed expressing our own needs.

Facebook and libraries

For me another one of the more thought-provoking 23 Things. It's easy to see the attraction for libraries of having a facebook presence when facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites in the UK. Undoubtedly we want to be where our users are. I don't, however, think it is something that libraries should dive into lightly. Although presence on facebook can be seen as a platform for providing up-to-the minute information it seems to me information posted is rather difficult to organise. For this reason very careful consideration of the purpose of the presence needs to take palce. It was very interesting to see the various ways different libraries in Cambridge are currently using it - posting acquisitions, events, topical news items etc. - and the images of events certainly made a difference. Too much varied information, however, could be daunting for a 'fan' or 'group member' though. If a reader only irregularly finds something that interests them the chances are they won's stay a member of the group long or check pages regularly. Libraries also need to think about with whom they are trying to interact - other librarians, students, both? It's interesting to note the number of librarians that have an individual presence too - I'm not sure I'd want to merge the professional and social uses. However, if a library has a common page for the institution staff members on public access points need to be aware of the information being posted on it at the very least. If a reader comes in and says - oh I saw from your facebook posting that blah, blah, blah, then all library staff they are likely to approach need to know what they are talking about. For me, the Courses and Virtual Bookshelf features may be worth further investigation too as they are not things that I was previously aware of. It still hasn't really been demonstrated though how effective a tool facebook is for libraries and if it is something that is going to stay with us for some time to come needs to be investigated further. Libraries certainly can't ignore it's potential that is certain.
Image courtesy of Benstein from FlickrCC

LibraryThing - is it really for libraries?

Ok, so perhaps not the most interesting or inspiring image but you get the idea. I've discovered LibraryThing and added a few titles in order to play about with it. Couldn't agree more with the posting of Moonhare on the blog entitled On silent white wings - I could spend way too much time on this adding my own personal library. I think the main benefit of doing this would be getting recommendations and reviews of titles I don't own or haven't heard of yet. The recommendation section certainly seems more beneficial than amazon. I always find part of the problem with amazon is I buy things for other people and then get recommendations based on those purchases. LibraryThing is user-friendly but one of the most disappointing aspects for me was the lack of UK libraries which subscribe and it is interesting to note the lack of reviews on the CSL LibraryThing account. Having said this I don't doubt the importance of the addition of Web 2.0 technologies to OPACS. The addition of bookcovers, contents pages, reviews etc. or at least links to these is becoming something that is increasinlgy expected by our users and though I am a cataloguer I have nothing against tags appearing alongside traditional subject headings. Whether LibraryThing is the way to achieve this, however, I wouldn't like to say. I am not an expert on the alternatives and the pros and cons of these.

Reflections ...

At the beginning of 23 Things I felt like I was standing on the shore of the lake in this picture, courtesy of "Stuck in Customs" staring out into the wilderness, not even seeing the beauty of the reflection. I was embarrassed at not having kept up with recent technological developments and emerging tools. That has changed and I am glad of this opportunity to reflect.

Thanks to the clear instructions of the Cam23 team I now feel more confident about trying out new things and don't panic quite so much about what might go wrong! The programme moves quite quickly though and to a certain extent I feel like I am still dipping my toe in the water on a lot of the things. Still I've learned to see the programme very much as a brief introduction to the 23 Things which, now I am aware of, I can go back and look at in more detail when the programme has ended. Some things, for example, are also not that relevant to my current job but I can see the value of them and may well utilise them in the future.

I like the fact I can do the course in my own time, when it suits me yet have the backup of other bloggers or failing that the Cam23 team if I have further questions or indeed problems trying to achieve something. It would be nice if this support continued, perhaps in the form of a list, after the course finished. I also like the fact it is so hands-on and not in a pressurised environment. Self-discipline may become a bit of an issue as the programme continues though knowing I am learning new things and that others are doing the course alongside me is motivation enough and keeps me going.

So far I've loved Flickr - it opened up a whole new world of images which can add aesthetic vlaue to future creations, including my blog. I'd recommend this and iGoogle. Since creating my iGoogle page it's the one thing I've gone back to several times. This is perhaps more for personal than library use though. I'd recommend Slideshare for research in preparing presentations though fail to be won over by Twitter which I didn't find that easy to use.