Facebook and LinkedIn

Ah, Facebook. The great time-waster, I mean, social networker of our age. I enjoy using Facebook. In addition to the game apps that I use to provide myself with some distraction throughout the day, I am using Facebook to connect with friends, both old and new. I have noticed that there are more and more of my old high school mates getting onto Facebook. I think much of this has come as a result of our recent 20th anniversary reunion. I have noticed too that my parents and many from their generation and older have been flocking onto Facebook of late. An interesting phenomena to say the least. I think that one reason people are drawn to use Facebook is that it is easy to use and has some privacy features built in to provide some sense of security. Plus, as more people join, it is having a snowball effect. The more that are members, the greater the reason for others to want to connect to it.

I am a member of 52 groups currently. These groups are both for professional and personal interests. These groups provide me the opportunity to both show support for various libraries or causes, as well as stay informed about them. The groups are also a way to connect with others of similar interests. I am also a fan of a number of groups, persons, and things. The fan pages are another way to stay connected and informed.

I also use Facebook for work-related purposes also. I have a Fan page up for the Grewcock Library here at Grace University. It provides me with another means for communicating about and promoting the library. I also use the messaging feature in Facebook to communicate with student workers. This has recently been of great help since we have been having some email server problems here at the school. I chose to use a fan page rather than a group in order to provide a bit more formal of a arrangement for the library's presence on Facebook as well as to be able to gather statistics for its usage.

I use LinkedIn primarily to connect with friends and colleagues. I have not yet used this tool to its full potential. I have seen it used as a way to get word out about job openings. The groups I am a member of on LinkedIn are larger groups and seem to be generally less active. I have made recommendations for people I have worked with in the past on LinkedIn. So again, I see potential in LinkedIn, have watched a cool video on how it can be used, have spoken about it at the 2008 NLA/NEMA conference, but have not yet made full use of LinkedIn.

I don't seem to find the time to devote to the Nebraska Learns 2.0 tasks. I will continue to try to keep up. Hopefully, I can carve out time to play with Worldcat.org before the end of this month.

1st month's assignment

I have not been able to get any responses from those who have tweeted or posted regarding our school. I have had responses from those with whom I have shared information discovered from searching tweets and news postings. It is another useful way to gather information that is being sought and to stay alert to what others are saying on the Web about our institution. Definitely can be a nice supplement to surveys and other methods of gathering data from users on how to improve services and track usage.

I have noticed on some blogs and news sites, they offer a number of methods (including newer 2.0 ways) for informing others about the content of the blog/news article. Our library consortium is beginning to examine where we should go with regard to a new ILS and OPAC. I think having the capability to tweet, digg, email, or whatever about information found in the catalog as well as post comments is something that should be available to our library users. I can envision some professors (the more tech-savvy probably) using such features to inform their students of resources that may be essential for an upcoming paper or project. I guess we will have to stay tuned for these developments.

Tweets about my school

I have to say tracking tweets related to my library's school is rather fascinating. I have passed this onto our Admissions department, because it is a handy way to see what some are saying about the school. A teacher tweeted proudly that one of her students received a scholarship to Grace University. Pretty cool!

RSS feeds

I love RSS feeds. I have a long list of blogs and other sites that I track in the Feeds reader built into IE. I keep it set up to the left of my browser window, so I can stay up to date on a variety of topics. I often will pass news and other information along to people, such as faculty here at Grace University to whom it may interest. I have not yet used the news alerts and such as we are working on in this lesson before to track the library or school. I chose to follow Grace University in most instances because we are a small school and I was not getting any results in my initial searches. So I am tracking my library's community. I have already encountered a quote by one of our professors in the Lincoln Journal Star, as well as some tweets related to our school, including one by a prospective student. I will post on the results of my responses and all later.

Nebraska Learns 2.0

It seems rather appropriate that I post again on this blog exactly 1 year since my last posting. Well, I can't say that I will continue to generate postings of any substance or consistency. But I am beginning the Nebraska Learns 2.0 course.

I am struggling with what to put down on my learning contract. I think this has a lot to do with the lifelong learner habits with which I have the most difficulty. Habits 1 through 4 are probably the most difficult for me. I don't set goals very well, because I know that in setting a goal, I set up an opportunity for failure. This in turn addresses my inability to accept responsibility for myself and my learning. As a result, I do not see the problems as challenges but as roadblocks and reasons why I should not have set up a goal in the first place. Thus I do not have confidence in my self. How's that for a peek at the inner psychological machinations of my mind?

But with a little accountability, I will make it through this course and learn something.

I have some tools already that I use to promote learning. I have an extensive set of RSS feeds that I monitor via the RSS Feed Reader in Internet Explorer, as well as a variety of e-newsletters that I receive. These help me to stay abreast of issues in some topics. I then redistribute relevant information to the faculty to assist in their own learning process. So, I think habits 5-7 would be the easiest for me.

I am realizing that this post is an exercise in TMI. But it may be healthy for me to continue. It may not be healthy for you (or your opinion of me) to continue. Just a warning that I can be at times extremely reflective in my online ramblings.

Something said in the video that struck a note with me related to Habit 4, I think. It had to do with associating a word with yourself which then becomes true for yourself. I realized that a certain truth about myself had changed as a result of a shift in how I viewed myself. The word became reality. Now, in this instance, I think it is a negative concept. I now need to reverse that process with positive self-speak. I think therefore I am. Hmmm....maybe I should cite that quote. But since no one chose to continue reading past my warning, I can say whatever I want here. Of course, if anyone is reading this, I would hope they would never admit to being so nosey and intrusive. Hence I have now addressed habit 7 1/2. Tra-la-a-la-la-la!!!

I clearly do not have the discipline to blog. :(

I tend to spend more time in Facebook now.