Thing 15+16 Twitter

I am a strange internet person. Its not that I'm antisocial, because I read other peoples output, I just don't often give back. I have my ancient old livejournal, which I haven't updated in about a year but I still check my flist every day. I check facebook equally often, but barely speak to anyone, and I am forever appearing offline on msn (though I frequently strike up conversations with other people anyway).

Having read my blog you can probably guess why - I am the most long-winded and stupid 'post-er' ever. I take hours to compose as much as a facebook status, and then have to think it over 15 times before posting. It makes these things tedious and irritating and so I happily nosey about other peoples lives without sharing much of my own (so - less anti-social and more sociopathic?)

I am the same with Twitter. I've had my account for a year, I've got tweetdeck at home and a twitter gadget on my igoogle page, and yet I have only ever made 120 tweets, most of which were @people, arranging things, and atleast a quarter were in the last fortnight since, thanks to 23things, the trainee twitterverse somewhat exploded!

But I do like twitter. My favourite part of facebook is status updates, so Twitter works for me on a theoretical level. That I am fussy and useless with my own updating doesn't mean that I don't read other peoples, and enjoy it as a lazy way to keep up with people. It's also great, and incredibly weird, for the whole 'looking into celeb lives'. In particular, I have recently been stalking various skins cast members to try and find out if they were brainwashed into acting the last series, or genuinely thought it was a good idea. The addictive nature of twitter has caught a lot of *figures in the public eye's* attention, and somehow it seems less weird than going through someone's facebook (where there's pictures, a lot more detail on their lives etc)

I don't follow a huge amount of celebrities though, because I genuinely don't care what Stephen Fry or Mr Pickle are eating (As a listener of Jonathon Ross' radio show, I do know who Mr Pickle is, but I always listen again or podcast, and that way - if he gets too detailed about his dogs toilet habits and every other tiny fact he reports, I can just skip ahead.) My one main requisite to follow someone is that however frequently (or infrequently) they tweet, at least 75% of it is interesting or funny (and this goes for friends aswell!)

So, as a social networking tool, twitter gets my vote; in a library situation I am not so sure. It can be used for the same effect as a facebook page, but the 140 character limit is somewhat....well limiting...because its hard to convey any *real* information in that space. You have to link to somewhere else to give the full information, and that kind of renders the idea pointless for me. I would much rather have all the information in one place, as can be done through facebook.

Thing 14 Linked In

Linked in was the only thing on 23 things that, not only was I not already a part of, but hadn't even come across and, after my time playing around with it, I can see why.

I can see the point of it, just like I see the point of uploading a CV to somewhere like monster - if you've got a big impressive work history, your job is reliant on who you know (which lets face it, most are) and your are on the hunt for something particular. But I'm not. I know what I want to do, know how to get there, and know that using a site like linked in is going to be very little help.

A couple of fellow trainees have offered opinions about it being hard to navigate because, as with all these things, the users define the company names and not everyone agrees. I've only just realised that the reason I coudn't find anyone who shared my workplace is because everyone else was putting the Uni and I put the library service.

I imagine for the 'creating a network' idea to work, I'd need to put a lot of work in, going out to find people because I don't know that many would come find me. It's popular, but it's not that huge (afterall I hadn't heard of it and I spend far too much time on the internet).

Overall I was completely underwhelmed by Linkedin. At first I thought it was just me, but I've seen other people now who feel the same, which has cemented my opinion that - for me atleast - it would be a waste of time completing my profile.

Thing 13: Facebook

Ah facebook, the procastinators heaven. There is no important deadline that cannot be ignored for an hour whilst you look through the photos of someone you haven't spoken to in nine years or send messages to someone in the next room, who you saw five minutes ago and will see again in another ten (you're all doing it, I'm just saying it!)

Of course it serves a further purpose beyond being a helpful tool for the seasoned stalker. 'Fan pages' and communities are a great way for places to advertise services or events. In the past I've been a 'fan' of a number of bars/societies and used facebook to keep upto date with their goings on.

The main problem people seem to have with libraries using facebook is the intrusion of 'work' into 'social'. Whilst I can understand this theory, and why people would thus chose not to follow a library facebook, I don't think that is a reason for not having one.

I am a forgetful, and frankly slightly dumb, person and I never think to check websites regularly for updates. Take for instance, the Sunday Times festival - the dates are marked in my diary, when I realised in December that I would want to go, but I'd completely forgotten that it was this month until a brochure turned up on my doorstep. At which point it all came flooding back and much excitement ensued. Same goes for Hay - I get very excited when I think of it occasionally, but if I wasn't on the mailing list I would never remember at the right time, and would miss the tickets for all the fun things.

Facebook is just another form of outreach, and one we *know* most students use. Whilst few libraries have enough news constantly occuring that something like a mailing list would be called for, I think alot - both academic and public - would have enough to make a facebook page worthwhile.

The EFL (of whom I am a fan) use facebook for advertising and I think that's great. Things like the Tolkien exhibition, which Jess will have mentioned and I will have promptly forgotten, are there on my facebook feed, waving at me, inviting me across and that sticks in my mind (not that I could go as they close before I finish work but the point stands.)

I, personally, would 'fan' any venue which regularly put events on that interested me, be it a club with theme nights or a society with events - even a public library which put on readings or something. And, to me, this suggests that facebook is a valuable library tool.

(okay, that was a bit ranty wasn't it?)

Thing 12: Youtube

Youtube is definitely one of the best things about the internet, without question. I could live without the lazy social interaction, the easy to come-by reading material, even the publishing space, but if I couldn't spend a random day watching the entire series of a dodgy kids television show I haven't thought about in ten years, I don't know how I would could cope (or chase down every weird and wonderful music video from my teenage years, or old spice girl interviews, or cats falling off things....) To this end, I have a youtube account, complete with playlists, favourites and subscriptions.


I had seen educational youtube channels before (I somehow stumbled across the Nottingham one and then started searching) but I had never really thought to explore them. I think the idea of them is great, though I didn't actually find any I found that interesting personally. I don't know that it is as well publicised as it should be, seeing as I stumbled across it accidently and i've noticed a couple of people on 23 Things hadn't heard of it at all.

And now I will leave you with one of my all-time favourite music videos, starring the wonderful Christopher Eccleston and...well....nothing else.

Thing 11 - Podcasts

So, podcasts. As entertainment, I have been harvesting podcasts since second/third year (whenever the 'Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy' podcast started) I listen to them mainly at night, as an alternative to reading a book or something, and these days am subscribed to a couple (Jonathan Ross, Rhod Gilbert and Front Row.)

I subscribe using itunes, for simplicities sake as much as anything else, but one definite upside of this is that I can keep them for as long as I want (I have about 2 years woirth of News Quiz's and the last six months of Russell Brand's old show) . I am not sure if this is possible with googlereader, and as it's so easy to use itunes I probably won't find out.

As you can see, I like my podcasts for entertainment: I approve of the idea of using them educationall in a library setting, and think it can be a great learning tool

Things 9 and 10

No you're not going crazy - I am doing 9&10 without doing 7&8. That's because I've not used picnik before and I want a chance to play around properly with it, and I haven't yet had time.

Delicious, however, is another one of those things I've been using for years. Though for the purposes of this exercise I started a new account which I will keep work related.



http://delicious.com/susanfgiles


As that has five bookmarks, and will probably only get a new once a month, I will now continue to talk about my old, personal account, which I have been using for years. On that one I have 400+ bookmarks, 176 tags and 16 bundles.

I feel now would be a good time to point out that I love delicious (though I use it for the 'bookmarking' aspect and not the 'social').
I saved my first bookmark back 2006 apparently, and I've used it constantly since then to keep track on lj links, writing magazines/comps etc etc. I like it because the tagging feature makes it really easy to keep track of the many links I have on similar subjects. These aren't links I use on a truly regular basis, maybe once a month or so - my most frequented bookmarks I stick in my browser bookmarks, usually in the toolbar and now on my iGoogle page.

I saw that Jess was not a huge fan of delicious. Having nosed around her links, I think the reason for our differing opinions it the way we use it. I've built a structure of tag bundles (see right) with the tags indicating, for example, what format a writing magazine comes in, whether it allows unsolicited submissions, runs competitions etc etc. This means if I have a piece of writing I want to submit, I can easily track down the list of possible places and then see what the best option is. Or, alternately if I want to read/purchase something I can find it.

As a repository for bookmarks, Delicious really works for me. As a social networking tool, time will tell I suppose, but I doubt it is something I will ever use. I have enough of virtual socialising in my life.

Library Day in the Life: DAY FOUR

I don't like Thursday's. For the rest of the world it's Mondays but I can't hate a day that brings with it both a lie-in and Hustle: two of my favourite things. Thursday however is my early, which is rubbish (it is also in that horrible no-place, close to the weekend but not close enough to get excited about.)

So, early. Not *that* early admittedly - 8.45 to help open up which is a relatively easy task in itself. It boils down to:

• switching on the issue desk computers/logging into OLIS, the staff blog, the library iGoogle
• switching on the reader pcs/logging into the system
• unlocking the discussion rooms
• emptying drop boxes using backdated system (to ensure no unfair fines are accrued)
• clearing the hold shelf of lapsed items (usually left to the senior staff)
• putting cash in the tills (ditto)

It's not hard work and (with the exception of the reader PC's as there are so many) it's relatively quick. The drop boxes can't be emptied until nine or later, so that usually involves a bit of hanging round but that's it.

Usually I'll stamp the FT's and pop them out in the wait, and start the mail as well - which today was handy as Alice and I were both on the desk first thing and only had half hour between that and our reader services meeting.

We have reader services meetings every week during term, alternating days so that as many people as possible can make them. In the most part it's just refresher training or running over changes in policy.

Back on the desk for another half hour, then break, then shelving, then desk, then lunch. When I get back from lunch there's only half hour before I'm on the desk again (it's a desk heavy day) so after the post-lunch post I fill the lull with fiddling with my blog (as it's 23 Things related, I figure it's okay).

Time for an hour and a bit of quick repairs, and five minutes of clearing the bits of paper our desk has accumulated before home time, where I can look forward to silent witness: tonight a cracking episode but still not Hustle!