More Twitter thoughts

With my envy for those going to CiL this weekend at the fore of my thoughts, and seeing Michelle's post in my Bloglines this morning, I realized Twitter would be good for those of us who aren't married to their cell phones for text messaging purposes, but adore our PDAs when trying to notify friends of our locations at conferences. ACRL was my first time really putting my cell phone through its texting capability paces. I didn't have my PDA with me, as it was enjoying an unexpected vacation at my parents' house, but as there was free wireless available, I would have easily been able to update my Twitter account with my location without messing around with texting and the accompanying charges. I'm trying to remember now if Marc Smith talked about Twitter in particular when he mentioned MoSoSo in his January presentation. The Twitter Fan Wiki has been of some help, and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to look further into Twitter's uses. I'm still not sure how to best utilize Twitter in a library setting, but I can see some of the personal uses. Once again, with social networking software, an application is not going to be used if the user cannot see how it applies to their life.

99% of my best ideas come when I'm in the shower

While I was brainstorming for what I want to say in an upcoming post about my life with Library 2.0, it came to me. "It" is a new area for young librarians. I've been active since the end of last week on the Library 2.0 group on Ning. Over the weekend, I was reading a recent Blatant Berry blog entry. It brought back an idea that I thought about and discarded when I first started tYL: a forum for young librarians. Back then, I didn't have the time to muck around with a bulletin board program and NexGenLib and Newlib were going strong. They still are, but NexGenLib has moved to a new service and new management, and I didn't stick around for the brouhaha that caused the shift. Newlib has recently been the setting of a series of highly negative discussions, hence the Blatant Berry post. Two comments in that post are what struck a chord with me. The commenters wanted the positive elements of NexGen and Newlib without the overwhelming negativity. There needs to be a new area for young librarians. The problem with listservs, and frankly with any electronic communication tool, is that it's easy to turn it off and forget what usefulness it has when it's being inundated with negativity. I'm in no way trying to supplant NexGenLib or Newlib because I do feel they both have value, and they both have developed communities over the years. Plus, what works for one person is not going to work for all. So, with all of that background, I am unveiling the Young Librarians space on Ning.

http://younglibrarians.ning.com

I'm saying this now, I will not tolerate trolls or extended negative discussions. I'm not denying your opinion or your right to have it, just the ability to burden this space with it. The lot of new librarians is rarely a walk in the park, but downward spiraling discussions over your inability to find a job or furor over the party line of the "Great Librarian Shortage" helps no one. If you join the group and want to complain about not being able to find a job, be prepared to post your resume and/or cover letters and have them critiqued.

Anyone can join, but only members will be able to get beyond the first page. I will not be moderating photos and videos, so please use your best judgment. However, I am asking that everyone share a little about yourself when you join. There are some positives and negatives about Ning that I've come across.

PROS:

• Ability to concentrate your own little social network


• Purpose to the social network


• Forums for threading discussions


• RSS capability for virtually everything you'd want an RSS feed of

CONS:

• Can take a while to load, even on fast connections.


• Cannot see member profiles of those not in a network with you (if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know)


• You can't immediately go to the newest posts to a discussion from the website

Midwinter musings

Yeah, I know this is a month late, but here's my Midwinter wrap-up.

Friday: OCLC Symposium - "Who's Watching Your Space?"

I have seven (7) pages of notes from this program. It is one I'll still be trying to process six months from now. The streaming video is now available on the OCLC website if you're interested in watching. Honestly, if you're interested in social networking, particularly theory, it is well worth your time. Something Howard Rheingold said that stands out for me in my notes (especially after reading this Tribune article*) is digital natives need to learn citizenship, both within the digital world and outside of it.

The intermission videos showing people's answers to questions on how to describe social networking, privacy, security, communication, and life without social networking were very intriguing. If nothing else, watch the streaming video for those.

danah boyd's insights into social networking and the role it plays in people's, especially young people's lives, gave me some food for thought on how we serve kids, teens and young adults. How do we as a digital population create privacy in a world without walls? I live a great deal of my life online. I try to create a buffer/privacy zone in some of those areas, but I know that area would easily be eradicated by a persistent individual. In the scandals of teens and MySpace over the last few years, we can see the truth of the statement that the binary concepts of public and private have blurred. It is much easier now, than in the past, to make available information on the public web that would have only seen the light of day on pain of death.

Marc Smith from Microsoft rounded out the trio of presenters. His work with mobile social software (or MoSoSo as he called it) is a bit scary, but makes total sense. One of the first things he talked about was that footprints are aggregatable and and analyzable. Considering the statistic he later quoted, that if you own a mobile device, you will likely leave behind three terabytes (yes, 3,000,000,000,000 bytes) of information, why not try to collate and interpret that information?

I'll finish with a quote from either Marc or Michael: "The need for information guides is ever greater." Above that in my notes I wrote: libraries do not equal librarians. These are concepts we will *need* to keep in mind when communicating with the public and legislators on why we are vital to an information literate society.

For Saturday and Sunday, read the archives.

Monday: NMRT Executive Board meeting

We had two guests at the board meeting, the candidates for ALA President-elect. I would say both seem qualified, but I think Jim Rettig was a bit more prepared than Nancy Davenport to talk about his platform and how it related to members and potential members of NMRT. I highly recommend you check out their websites for more information, and if you have specific questions to contact them.

What did I ultimately get out of the conference? A lot. Even something I in no way expected or planned for: a committee appointment within RUSA CODES. That happened because I showed up at one of the committee meetings and contributed to the discussion. The chair remembered me and recommended me as someone to approach for further involvement. This is why I heartily recommend going to conferences if you can. The connections you make at conferences will put you in contact with opportunities.

*If you don't have a Chicago Tribune registration, check out Bugmenot's offerings.