Thing 12 - Putting the social into social media #cpd23

The cpd23 things blog post gave some great advantages of using social networking in the context of professional development, which I won’t repeat here. I started using social media for professional development during the Cam23 things programme in summer 2010, and will definitely carry on using it after the end of this programme.

After initial scepticism, I've grown to like using Twitter for seeing what other information professionals are sharing, and spotting useful links. However I only follow 40-something people and each time I log in there are so many updates to scan through, that I’m sure I have missed some interesting things. It would be easy to spend a lot of time on Twitter, so this could be considered a disadvantage! Although I don't tweet very often from my personal account, I use one of my library's Twitter accounts and Facebook pages to share relevant information, so hopefully this is helping and adding to the online community in some way. 

For me, the tricky thing is the blurring of professional and personal boundaries. I initially used Facebook for personal social networking, Twitter for professional social networking and kept the two as separate online identities, but I'm finding that distinction harder to keep up, as more and more of my personal friends are on Twitter and colleagues are on Facebook. While there’s nothing on my Facebook profile that I would want to hide, I choose different profile pictures to reflect my professional side and my personal side, as my Facebook profile picture often includes a family member or friend. I wonder what other people’s experiences are here?

I do feel that social networking helps foster a sense of community, however it’s worth remembering that not all information professionals are involved in social networking and there are other communities out there too. If we are part of an online community as well as a face-to-face one, we can benefit from both and the balance this gives.

  by  SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent) 

Reaching Cam23 Nirvana #cam23

So, here's to the end of Cam23 2.0. I have enjoyed the programme and along the way I've learned lots of new things. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to read other people's Cam23 things blogs, but look forward to catching up with them at my leisure. Here's my overall summary of the Cam23 2.0 journey...

Things which made you smile

• Prezi was fun and although my first prezi was nothing special, the end result made me smile. I only did a very simple one, but found it easy to use (apart from some difficulties figuring out the path).
• Lightshot - so quick and simple to use!
• Flickr and creative commons licensing can go in this category as using creative commons licensed pictures from flickr can really liven up a blog post and they have so many other library-related uses!

Things which have become a part of the way you live and work

• I still don't engage in that many conversations, but I regularly use Twitter to see what people are talking about and for current awareness.
• Blogging has become much easier (although I still don't consider myself an experienced blogger!) and I will continue with this throughout the chartership process and hopefully beyond. I am finding it a very useful way of putting my reflections down in writing. 
• It's too early to tell right now, but here's hoping that Zotero will become part of the way I deal with references.

Things which you'll never go near again

I won't say never, but at the moment I don't have a need for Evernote. I'm also still holding off on LinkedIn and LibraryThing, although maybe one day I will change my mind about these.

Web 2.0 and social media more generally - what role do they really play within libraries and information services?

This sounds like an essay question from my library masters course! For a start, a lot of librarians and information professionals use web 2.0 and social media for their own development, current awareness, networking, sharing information and so on. This is why I think it's great to see people getting involved in 23 things to learn about the technologies and tools that are out there, and decide which ones they like and which ones will be useful for them. I have found social media to be really helpful for my personal development and I have learnt so many new things through them. Some of these things help me to be more effective in my work (even in small ways such as lightshot screenshots saving me time).

Then of course there are library users, who really come first in libraries. I would say that social media increases the number of ways we can engage with users, find out what they want and help them. If library users are on facebook and twitter etc, then it is great that libraries and information services are there if users want to access information or start conversations there. Of course a lot of these web 2.0 tools are directly useful for library users, such as RSS feeds for new books, bookmarking and reference management tools. It's all about providing a better service to library users, and web 2.0 and social media can help with this in many ways.

I'll stop here before this turns into an essay-length post, but will just add that I am looking forward to the party this evening and seeing all the other Cam23 participants! Wordle is currently have technical difficulties, so a wordle of this post will follow...