The Librarian is strong in this one

Forgive me, Internet, for I have sinned. It has been one month since my last post. Ok, so one month isn’t the longest I’ve gone without posting, but it still felt weird. I’ve thought about posting for a while now. If only to come back and I say that I’m ok. I’ve worked through my downswing. I took care of business. I’m doing alright now. I’m caught up in my classes, though I know it will not be a…

The Struggle is REAL

Hi. I haven’t been able to write, really write, in three weeks. I haven’t really been able to do much of anything, homework included, for a month. The day I wrote the Mouthful of Forevers review was the day I got some really not great news. It hit me in the chest, put me on the ground, and I’ve been struggling to get back up again ever since. I live with, fight with, argue with, suffer from…

On 9/21/2015, BookRiot participated in #BlackOutDay by running articles by black writers. I took a moment to round-up the books and authors mentioned in these posts. The books run the gamut from fiction to nonfiction, kid lit to adult, and straight and queer. There are classics and award-winners alongside more popular and genre titles. Take a look, then head out to your local library or…

We’re always excited about the new and coolest thing in technoloy and on social media. However, this article on the Internet of Things mentions the one thing that librarians should always be wary of: secutiry and privacy. It’s great to be able to offer our customers ways to interact with the library collections, databases, and librarians outside of the library building itself. However, librarians also have an obligation to protect or, at the very least, warn our customers of the potential security and privacy risks. 

Some of the best users of social media, and I’m thinking of Twitter and Tumblr specifically because I use them frequently, are responsive. They post content that people feel connected to, and they respond to those who feel compelled to reach out to them. Strangers waiting up and down the boulevard! Please excuse the Journey moment, but that’s what t feels like. When social media users are honest and earnest, it comes through in their posts, and people feel as though they know that person.

On the flip side, though, is oversharing. Oversharing is the worst. You want to have some things that are never discussed on social media, because the internet is forever. People will never forget what you said on social media, because screenshots are exhibits a-z. So, always be careful. Perfect example: I had a conversation with friends the other day about photos we posted to Facebook during undergrad. Let’s just say they weren’t the best photos, and though they’ve been removed in the intervening years, we still remember them and they comments they received. Lesson learned.

Another thing I’ve noticed the best social media users are good at is hashtags. Hashtags are tricky. Too may hashtags or trying to hashtag everything is tacky. Hashtags are conversation enhancers and conversation trackers. It’s easy to join in or follow a conversation using the hashtage. We use them all the time for class. But, there are times when hashtags just won’t fit or are inappropriate, and trying to force them can show inexperience.

Hello again! First, apologies for the unplanned July hiatus. I didn’t realize that my schedule would be quite so hectic this month. The hiatus will continue though, until the end of summer classes. I’m so close to the finish line for my MLIS. I’ve already registered for fall classes and submitted my official candidacy form. Next step: apply for graduation! I’ll be back to tell you all about my…

But what does that mean, exactly? What are we measuring when we go to those analytics or  Insight pages? Do we care how many people like or follow us? Or are we more interested in how many people we've interacted with?

Social media monitoring doesn't happen willy-nilly. Libraries cannot jump into a social media tool without a goal in mind. This goal is key to determining what constitutes success on a given platform. This week's question asks for a concrete answer, though, not an 'it depends on the goal'.

Social Media. All the essays, gurus, and executives say that social media is a conversation. But marketing, what I know of it (most of which I learned from Mad Men), is more one way, rather than two-way. Maybe that’s just advertising, but aren’t advertising and marketing two sides of the same coin?

Over on the SJSU246 Pinterest board for this week, there is a pin from Valerie about optimum times to post. Why, though, do we target the 1p-4p range for Facebook and Twitter? Do we only want people to see our posts during their lunch breaks? This is an interesting thought, because, if I, as myself, were to post on Facebook between 1p-4p, I can expect almost no one to see it. Why? Because people are at work. They have daytime lives. Is the library only a part of the daytime life of our patron? Am I getting too philosophical with this? I have the same question for Twitter. I would think that Twitter’s optimum posting times would be in line with Tumblr, 7p-10p, to go with TV shows, live tweeting, live blogging, leisure time. Mind blown.

But on to the question for this week: How should libraries market the social media tools their using?

Be fun. Be relevant. Be engaging.

Study the social media greats of the demographic you’re going after, and emulate them. If you want Millenials, study the things they like. Watch Youtube channels. Do the research, then engage. One thing to remember: Social media marketing is not just being online all the time. The physical entity of the library, including collections and programming, has to match the online presence being projected (King, 2015). 

This module, this entire class, has left me with a lot to think about regarding both mine and my library’s social media campaign. On the personal side, I don’t use it as a conversation. On the professional side, we’re a bit all over the place, and while I understand that different platforms have best practices, we could stand to be more cohesive. 

This week we're looking at big data, privacy, and what both mean to libraries and librarians in this social media optimized, highly technological world in which we live. The question asks whether libraries should collect, store, and utilize big data in service to our communities. I have mixed feelings about this.

Jennifer Helfrich (2015) defines big data as "data sets that are extremely large and complex," kinda obvious there. However, she goes on to explain, albeit implicitly through her examples, that this data includes personally identifiable information, such as name, email address, phone number, and geo-location, as well as photos, emails, and social media posts (Helfrich, 2015). That's a lot of information to collect about a single person. We, as consumers, tend not to think about the applications we use as collecting all of this information from us and using it or selling it or whatever. Every time we hit "agree" or "accept" to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy without actually reading it, we're consenting to an entity using our information for their own purposes. Often these conditions and policies are so vaguely worded that even if we were to read them, we wouldn't truly understand what they were saying anyway (Scherker, 2014).

It's different for libraries, though. And if it isn't, then it should be. We, as librarians, have been told time and again that we adhere to the American Library Association's Code of Ethics. This means that we have a responsibility to protect the privacy and personal information of our users, as well as the library institutions commitment to intellectual freedom and fair representation. How can we do either of those things if we are collecting, storing, and using customer information? Is that not the complete opposite? We want our users to trust us not to do such things. We are the library, a community center, not a faceless corporation.

On the flipside,  I can see where collection of some user data could be useful. I don't mean all that which is traditionally defined or thought of us big data, and indeed, it still feels as though it would go against the very nature of the library. But. Libraries already track circulation statistics for materials. Items go out, they come back, they have circulated. They have been used. Normally, we have no idea what the item was, who checked it out, if they liked it, none of that.  Some ILS' have a "reading history" feature where users can opt-in and keep track of everything they've checked out. What is interesting to me, and makes me think that this could be a good thing, is that users think we do this automatically. Some are confused and downright disappointed that we don't keep track of what they checked out after they've returned the item.

I propose that we do automatically track user check outs. It doesn't have to be the title. It could be just the author's name or the genre. This way, when the user comes looking for a readers' advisory, but can't remember the last book they read, we can look at it, and continue the interaction. Such data collection could also lead to a collection that better reflects the service community. Of course, we can't leave the entire collection up to user whims and publishing trends, but the usage statistics of a collection based heavily on concrete user wants would be a strong indicator of value added to the community. There would be challenges, to be sure. One major objection I can see already: How do we ensure that users personally identifiable information is protected while simultaneously tracking their reading habits? I don't know yet. Another issue that would need to be addressed: The creation of a policy/procedure/guideline and related press release for the collection and use of this data, as well as something that states explicitly that the library will never sell, rent, share, or otherwise utilize the personally identifiable information of users beyond the bounds of current usage. Tis a very fine line to navigate.

What I worry about, though, in tracking reading habits is that people will feel less free and able to read what they want. They may feel as though we are watching them and will only pick socially acceptable books like Hamlet, rather than what they want to read, which may be Fifty Shades of Grey. I would hate for that to happen.

Helfrich, J. (2015). Plugged in or tuned out?: What do our students know about big data? Knowledge Quest, 43(4), 76-77.

This week’s question asks us to think about how education has changed, as well as some of the advantages and challenges of learning in a social media/web 2.0 world. What's the most obvious change? Wikipedia and Google Scholar.

Wikipedia taught us that all information is not created equal. Maehre (2014) argues that Wikipedia is not only a good thing, but can be useful in teaching information evaluation. We can all agree that there are great Wikipedia articles and there are trash Wikipedia articles. The great ones have references that are almost as long as the article, hyperlinks that aren't broken, headings and subheadings to get lost in. The trash ones are plagued with this:

A great Wikipedia article lights a spark, makes you want to read more, makes you feel as though you've learned something. A trash Wikipedia article will make you question your educational choices. Maehre (2014) sees this as good. For him, learning is a process, a journey, with no particular end in sight. You should always be engaged in thinking critically about the information that you come into contact with, and using Wikipedia, in conjunction with other educational techniques, can teach you how to do that (Maehre, 2014). The background or authority of the author takes a backseat to the quality of information presented.

Google Scholar is something that I've only just discovered in graduate school. Google is fast becoming a one-stop shop. It's a verb, for Pete's sake! Access to scholarly articles without having to be connected to an academic institution. Who would have thought that was possible 15 years ago? It is here that a student may come when searching for that magical combination of keywords and phrases combination that will net us a good 5 or so pages of results that we can sift through. We do this, because we want general information.

It has always been my understanding that a good research project moves from the general to the specific. Starting with internet searches, whether through Google or Wikipedia, is a tried and true technique of graduate students, indeed of undergrad students as well (Liyana & Noorhidawati, 2014). From the internet search for general information, we begin to form our thesis; we begin to frame our research. Then we move on to library research, online or physical.

The advent of web 2.0 and social media, I think, has forced us to become more discriminating in information sources. We know, now, that we can't trust everything someone tells us and/or that we read on the internet. We know, now, that some news outlets report without gathering all of the facts in an attempt to be first. Ever heard the phrase, "It's not true until it's on the BBC"? From all accounts, the BBC doesn't worry about being first. They worry about being right. I could be wrong here, but that's my impression. Web 2.0 has brought the hows of information evaluation to the forefront of the conversation. Rather than saying "don't use bad sources" or "beware of biased authors", web 2.0 and social media has made it possible to gain multiple perspectives, so that we may determine what a bad source is, what it is about the information that makes it unsuitable.

Liyana, S. & Noorhidawata, A. (2014). How graduate students seek for information: Convenience or guaranteed result. Malaysian Journal of Librar & Information Science, 19(2), 1-15.