Love, Love, Love These Tweets!!

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Top 5 Twitter Feeds That I Enjoy On a Daily Basis (in no particular order):

1. Entertainment Weekly @ew: I was already a big fan of the website, so following them on Twitter was a no brainer. I was made aware of this very funny video of the cul-de-sac crew of Cougartown playing a celebrity wine tasting game. Very funny, see the video here.

2. Women's Health Mag @ womens health mag: Great articles and information on exercising and health issues. Some of the best healthy recipes, like this.

3. Epicurious @ epicurious: I am semi-obsessed with food. I absolutely love to eat and cook. Epicurious tweets amazing recipes like this one. I haven't attempted it yet, but definitely will someday!!

4. Time.com @ time: I am following a variety of news outlets via Twitter, but I enjoy the Time tweets because I find this fun on my lunch break.

5. Jimmy Fallon @jimmyfallon: Love his show, but faithfully go to bed by 10pm. So when I saw this tweet -- Slow Jam the News with Brian Williams tonight!! #springsteenonfallon -- I knew to run over to Hulu to see my favorite newsman slow jam with The Roots.

So that is my top 5 for now. It seems to change day to day as the list of people and places I follow grows. Who do you have Twitter love for??

Favorite Mobile App

Photo from http://www.mapmyrun.com/

I know that are a few runners in our class and being that this week's topic is mobile devices, I wanted to tell everyone about a free app called iMapMyRun.

iMapMyRun is a mobile app that allows runners to keep track of different routes through the GPS function. The app also determines the length of the route and records the overall run time, minutes per mile and calories burned. From the app you can tweet or post to Facebook your run stats.

For more info, go to: http://www.mapmyrun.com/.

What is your favorite app?

Tagging?

When reading Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent conductivity, I came across this quote:

"Libraries have experimented with socializing services, inviting tagging, reviews and other contributions. The library may not be the best level for this as they may not have appropriate volumes of use, or users may not perceive the incentives that motivate participation in other environments."

In the academic library that I work at, the ability to tag is available through the Encore catalog. However, it is not used by students and faculty or marketed by library and staff. I have read articles about tagging working in public library catalogs where the librarians have marketed the service and tagging is an essential part of online reading catalogs like LibraryThing.

Do you think tagging should be considered an important tool in the academic library environment?

Dempsey, L. (2009). Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity. Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2291/2070

I'm on Twitter!

Photo of Ben from listenupdenver.com

Hi Everyone!

I signed up for a Twitter account. Please follow me by searching JessicaDziedzic. I have not tweeted yet but I did begin by following a variety of entertainment shows and publications. Oh, and my favorite musician -- Ben Folds!

Changing the Librarian Image

Photo from minnesota.publicradio.org

I found this on the Government Documents Listserv. Thought it was such a great way to change the perception of what a librarian looks like. Enjoy!!

This is What a Librarian Looks Like

Wonderful World of Wikis

Graphic from icc-annual-conference-2009.pbworks.com

How can a wiki help a library? I think there are many ways in which a library can benefit from a wiki. For example, the policies and procedures of a library can be stored on a wiki for instant access. Also, the wiki is collaborative in nature so staff members would be able to easily revise the policy and procedures as changes are needed.

A wiki could be a great use in academic or school library settings. Librarians and teachers could collaboratively add information to wikis for students regarding research and resources to help them with papers and projects.

Another great way to use a wiki would be for quick reference of frequently asked questions. Library staff can continue to add and revise questions and answers within the wiki, so that patron questions are answered in a consistent fashion.

These were just a few of the ways I can envision using a wiki. Can you think of anymore?

Information Literacy and Crap Detection

Photo from gptechnicalsolutions.com

While I was reading the crap detection article, I was struck by an observation made in a information literacy class I recently attended. During the class (which mainly consisted of freshmen), the librarian was asking students to complete research for a specific search term using three specific library databases (that were all very nicely gathered for them by the librarian and available on the class libguide). During one part of the class, the librarian asked that students find a newspaper article in a major publication such as the New York Times using a specific database. One of the students was 'caught' using Google instead. When the librarian asked him why he was using Google, he answered that Google was a 'short-cut'. But was it really?

Library databases allow students to find reliable and pre-vetted information so that students do not need to use the 'crap detection' technique when researching for a paper or project. Yet, students seem determined to use the 'easy' search engine instead of one that is going to give them better results. Why is this? How do we as librarians combat this?

Information literacy is so important at every level of education. Students need to learn how to successfully search for topics using search engines and databases. They also need to learn how to determine if the information is valid or not both in educational and everyday situations.

Social Grooming, Friends Structure, and Privacy

Photo from citytowninfo.com

I watched the video twice because it is just chocked full of information. I picked up on a variety of keywords and ideas that I would like to flesh out here on my blog. Let's start first with social grooming. Social grooming, via Wikipedia (I know, it's bad!!), is the act of animals grooming one another in order to build relationships. Social grooming in the context of the web, means saying nice things about one another to build or showcase relationships. If you think of social networking sites, like Facebook, you find people saying hello, saying nice things to each other and about each other -- social grooming. Though I am not in the population discussed in the video, I am able to see social grooming on my own Facebook pages as friends say hello and reinstate their friendship or husbands and wives posting words or images of love for their spouse.

I found the 'friends structure' portion of the video very interesting. When I first started my Facebook page, I hated friend requests from high school acquaintances. But as time went on and I opened up my social network on Facebook, many individuals from high school become part of my friends structure. They became part of my audience, they are the people I write to and for. Having a friend's structure that concentrates on individuals that are similar in some way (students, tuba enthusiasts) creates an audience of people with common interests or themes, gives us a new community to be a part of and socialize with.

The portion of the video on the definition of privacy for young people was fascinating. I especially found the use of pronouns an interesting tactic that students use to promote privacy in very public venues. I never even considered that the born digital generation would consider the idea of privacy in a very different way from other generations. The idea of being so open so that people think there is nothing you keep private, but it's really just a shield of openness to deflect from the really important things that teens want to keep private.

Just a really interesting video. Did you pick up on the same keywords and themes that I did? Did you feel the presenter did an adequate job explaining the use of social media and young adults to an audience of administrators and faculty? Were you concerned when she began discussing the dismal skills of current high school and middle school students?

Pros and Cons

In the beginning of the article, Experts Weigh Pros and Cons of Social Media, Ordonez writes about ways that social media can help journalists. Many of these reasons can also be applied to libraries and their patrons. For example, social media can create communication between patrons and librarians through comments on blogs or Facebook. Social media can also be a great way to market your library brand. At the library I work at, the staff is currently working on creating a brand and marketing it to the university community. There has been a lot of discussion of using social media because it is a platform that resonates with the student population.

Ordonez also mentions that social media lets journalists, "stay updated on new developments". This can also be applied to libraries because the use of social media can keep patrons up-to-date on library events and news. Many libraries use blogs to advertise library news and Twitter to spread library news to tech savvy patrons. The last point that really coincides with libraries is the use of multiple platforms to get your message out. Possibly some patrons use Facebook, but don't read blogs, or maybe only some patrons have a Twitter account. By maintaining a variety of social media accounts, you can get the word out to a wider audience.

But with all these accounts and updates, it could become time consuming and confusing. Do the pros outweigh the cons? If you can get the word out to a population that doesn't frequent the library or a student who is too intimidated to step into the library, isn't it all worth it?

Ordonez, S. (2010, August 16). MediaShift . Experts Weigh Pros and Cons of Social Media | PBS. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved February 03, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/08/experts-weigh-pros-and-cons-of-social-media228.html