Tech Adventures Unit Five: Social Media

Unit five: Social 4/11-4/25

Wiki: A wiki is a collaborative website that multiple people can easily edit and contribute content for. The most famous wiki of all is, of course, Wikipedia. Usually wikis are smaller and more focused, though, like Library Success: A Best Practice Wiki or Child Lit Wiki.

The Library has a wiki: OPPL Sandbox. I created one for us, too: OPPL Kids.
Check your email for log-in access to OPPL Kids. (If you prefer the Sandbox, I can get you that info, too.)

Create a page, maybe for program you’ve done or a book you want to recommend, and edit someone else’s. Be sure that you link whatever page you create to another page – the home page, a hub page, etc. This is easy to do with the Link button. You can add photos using “file” and videos, slideshows, calendars, and a lot, lot more under “widget.”

---

Twitter: This is a tool the Library uses pretty consistently, so everyone should have at least a passing knowledge of how it works. This is called microblogging – every post is no more than 140 characters. Some writers are better at condensing than others! It works like facebook (or an RSS reader) in that you add accounts to follow and they all appear on your feed. Create an account, connect to a few other users and make a few test posts.

Suggested accounts to check out:
Ours
Arapahoe Library District Storytimes
Mr. Schue, a fairly local children's librarian
Mel, an ALD Children's librarian with great storytime ideas
Updates from our favorite Awful Library Books site
Laura Ingalls updates on the Twittograph
Betty Francis tweets from 1965. (Best during Mad Men seasons)
Tweets of Old (one liners from 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th century papers)
You can also look for authors like Judy Blume or Neil Gaiman.

Twitter slang:
Tweet: your <140 character long post Retweet: Click “retweet” on a tweet you want shared with your own followers. At: Put @ before someone’s user name to ensure they get notified you’re talking to them. @oakparklibrary You have the best children’s programming ever! Hash: Put # before a word or phrase to make it searchable. #saturdaylibrarian for example. The top ten talked about #s on twitter are called the trending topics. (SaturdayLibrarians never trends.)

---

Facebook: Did you know that the Library has a Facebook fan page? Check out other library pages, too. Do you think we need one?

---

Good Reads.com v. LibraryThing.com: Most of us have accounts on GoodReads, which can be a great reader’s advisory tool. Another option is Library Thing. While GoodReads focuses primarily on reviewing books, Library Thing is more about cataloging your own personal library. LTs tags are also used differently than “shelving” tags on GR.

Choose one of the above and create an account. Add/review a favorite childhood book, favorite book now and favorite of 2011. Which do you prefer?

---

Bonus: Librarians at ILA talked about how they would go to Yahoo Answers and answer questions, making sure to point out they were librarians doing research to help. Give it a try!

---

Don’t forget to make your unit post. Do you think we should step up or change our social media presence? How can we use these or similar tools in our department? Could we use a department Good Reads or Library Thing page to provide recommendations to patrons? Which tagging style do you prefer? District 200 is partnering with District 97 to create a wiki on research strategies and practices for kids, parents and teachers, as part of the Vertical Team. How could we use a wiki?

We don’t have a social media policy that I’m aware of: should we?