I started using Twitter for a class in my MLIS program called Information Technology Tools and Applications. Up until that point, I had not been at all active in social media. My only prior experience was Facebook, which I had just joined the previous semester. I am so glad that my instructor had us all sign up for Twitter as part of the class, because it has been a really valuable tool for me not just for keeping up with news and information but for networking with librarians all over the country (and internationally!) as well. I started off with a private account, only following and being followed by my classmates and instructor. However, at the end of that semester I had the opportunity to attend the ALA Annual Meeting and decided to follow the conference hashtag and try tweeting the conference. Since I wanted to be able to participate fully in twitter conversations at the conference, I opened my twitter feed and decided to dive in to public social media participation. It wasn’t a complete success – I was trying to tweet from a first-gen kindle since I didn’t have a smartphone, and the browser was rudimentary, at best – but some of my tweets got featured in Library Journal’s top tweets from the conference, and I started getting followers. Since that time, I have met a lot of great library people via twitter and have learned a lot from the things that they post. I have started participating in #libchat, a twitter chat held every Wednesday evening for discussion on all sorts of library-related topics, which has been another great experience. Unfortunately I have not been able to be as active on twitter lately as I used to be, but I still find it to be a very useful tool.

I also started using Google Reader to follow blogs via RSS during the class mentioned above. I hesitated using an RSS feed reader for a long time, because I liked going to the actual page to read content on most of the blogs I read. However, once I started using Google Reader I quickly saw the utility of it. I can follow many more sites this way than I could if I had to remember to individually visit them all every day. Also, different blogs have different posting schedules and frequency, so accessing them all in one place saves a lot of time. I don’t check my reader as often as I should, mostly because I signed up for it using my yahoo email address (even though I have a Google account), so I need to sign out of my Google account in order to access my reader. I do plan to move everything to my Google account, but there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to do this besides adding all the feeds individually. Despite this issue, I still find it to be a great way to keep up with information on library-related blogs and other websites. Some of my favorite sites to follow on Google reader are  LISNews (Library and Information Science News), ALA TechSource (tech-related news from ALA), The Kept-up Academic Librarian (higher ed news for librarians), No Shelf Required (ebooks), and The Scholarly Kitchen (scholarly publishing). What are your favorites? Despite the fact that I have trouble keeping up with my Google Reader, I am always looking for great sites to follow.

The last tool we were supposed to explore for Thing 4 was Pushnote. I have not used Pushnote before, so I was curious about what it was all about. I did sign up for a user account; however, I decided not to download and install the browser plug-in. When I was about to do this, I got a warning that the plug-in needed to access all my information on the sites I visit and my browsing history. I went back to Pushnote’s site and was not able to locate a terms of service document or any kind of privacy statement. The only thing I found was a short statement in the FAQ that they do not track you. I know it’s silly to be paranoid when I am using all sorts of other tools with privacy issues (various Google services and Facebook, in particular). It’s the lack of any kind of statement that bothers me, and I’m a little leery of using this service. Based on other people’s posts, it does not seem I’m missing much. I already use Diigo for bookmarking sites, which has social features and seems to be all I need at this point. If anyone else has found Pushnote to be indispensable, please let me know!

In reading through Jo Alcock’s post on the subject on the CPD23 blog and her suggestions for further reading, I realized that my personal brand could use some work. Like many people, I’ve had an online life for quite some time. As I waded into various arenas of online activity I haphazardly set up various identities for myself, based on factors like how comfortable I was with using my real name and how much time I wanted to spend being creative. For this reason, I have a consistency problem. I am agrundmann on most services that I have started using within the past 3 years, but I have a different username for WordPress, and my name does not appear directly on my blog (although it does appear on my twitter feed, which is linked). When I started this blog, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be professional or personal, so I wasn’t sure I wanted it to show up in a Google search for my name. Over time, like so many others, I have settled on a “profersonal” character for this blog. I originally planned twitter to be my professional social networking tool and Facebook to be for personal contacts, but these have been steadily converging on the profersonal as well.

I also could use some work in visual consistency. Somehow I have managed to accidentally choose a similar color scheme for most things (brown), but in terms of fonts, imagery, and overall visual tone, they are all over the place. I would love to have some kind of logo or visual cue that is common between all my online identities, but I will need to do some thinking about what that will be.

One of the activities for this unit is to Google yourself and see what comes up. I tried this and found that the first page of results are all about me. My last name is not terribly common, so this wasn’t a surprise. Most of the results are social media-related, which I’m not sure is a good thing. I’m not all that active on twitter, but I think a lot of sites have popped up recently that pull in data from twitter to show stats for users (to rank them in various ways), so it’s skewing the perception of me as a twitter-addict. It is nice that the first hit is LinkedIn, though. The last time I Googled myself it wasn’t quite so twitter-centric, and I’d prefer if other things were at the top of the list. I think creating a more cohesive online identity and connecting my name with my blog should help with this.

Reading more about personal branding and really taking a look at my online identity and what it might say about me has been an interesting exercise. I am more motivated now to be proactive about managing my online brand. It seems more achievable now that the different pieces that make up your personal brand have been broken down, and I don’t need to come up with a complicated marketing plan to start thinking about my brand.

Thing 2 was to investigate other CPD23 participants’ blogs and comment on some of them, to start getting used to the “social” aspect of social media – having conversations rather than just posting your thoughts into the void. I’ve been commenting (sparingly) on blogs for years, so this was not so new to me. Commenting on posts that have gotten you to think about something in a different way, or that just interest you for whatever reason, is a great way to get your feet wet with blogging. Comment on enough posts and you start to realize that hey, maybe you do have something to say and starting your own blog doesn’t seem like such a silly idea.

There are hundreds of participants in the CPD23 program, so it would be impossible to read each and every person’s blog. Fortunately, the organizers have thoughtfully tagged each blog in delicious by country and type of library, so it is easier to narrow down the options if you are so inclined. I read through a few people’s introductory CPD23 posts and commented on a few that particularly struck a chord with me:

• Angela Pashia - I already “knew” Angela from twitter; we both particpate in the weekly #libchat twitter chat on Wednesday evenings (8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific).
• The Annotating Librarian - I was drawn to this blog by the name, and stuck around to comment because her reasons for participating echoed mine pretty closely.
• Web Librarian - I thought I posted on this one but I guess I forgot to hit submit. Coral specifically invited us to engage in conversation with her, so that appealed to me. Maybe I can successfully comment on one of her posts in the future.

This is my second ALA Annual conference. The first one was 2009 in Chicago while I was still a library school student, and I didn’t plan as well as I could have. I feel like I missed out on a lot of social activities and meeting people. Now I have a smartphone, I have many more twitter connections, and I have been working on my schedule to make sure I have plenty of back-up sessions planned in case things don’t work out. I think I’m on track to have a better experience this time. I am missing some events I was looking forward to this evening, but it’s better than not getting to go at all, right?

Some events I’m particularly excited about:

Saturday:

• Emerging Leaders Salon, 1:30-3:30. I’m really interested to hear about people’s experiences in the EL program.
• NMRT Resume Review Service: I’m having my resume reviewed and serving as a booth greeter. If your appointment is between 3-4pm, I’ll be there to help you.
• SJSU SLIS reception 4-6:30: Excited to see other SLIS alums at the reception. I’ll be a bit late, maybe 5pm.
• ALA Newbie and Veteran Tweet-up! Bar Uncommon, 7pm. Hopefully I’ll meet a bunch of people I only know online, and find new people to follow.
• Facebook after hours social, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, 9pm.

Sunday:

• Lost in Translation: The Emerging Technology Librarian and the New Technology, 8-10AM. Interested to learn more about actually getting new technology implemented.
• Library Instruction Round Table BITES, 12:30PM: lunch with LIRT folks. I’m not a member, but I’m interested in instruction.
• NMRT membership meeting, 1:30-3:30PM: I’m NMRT’s liaison to the California Library Association, and I’ll be on two committees starting after the conference, so I want to make sure to attend this meeting.
• Flash Mob and Freeze, 5:30-6pm: Patrick Sweeney organized this advocacy event to raise awareness for the need for community support of libraries in this era of endless budget cuts and closings. Wear something library-related, get to Jackson Square by 5:45, and Freeze for 3 minutes at 5:50 to take part.

Monday:

• Welcome to Planet FURLOW: Advice for Furloughed, Underemployed, Restless, and Laid-Off Workers, 8-10AM. Career advice is always welcome.
• How I Landed My First Librarian Position, and What I Did ‘In Between’ 10:30-12:00. I’m interested in hearing people’s stories, since I am trying to land my first librarian position.

• There are some topics that I do not know as much about and would like to learn more, such as personal branding and advocacy.
• I certainly don’t know everything about any topic, so I could always learn something new, even about the topics I think I know well already.
• There are a lot of people participating, so I may make some new connections. Everyone who’s participating is listed here.
• I’d like to get in the habit of blogging regularly since I’ve let this blog slip a bit. This program could give me the structure I need to make that happen.

I think it’s important to keep learning even though I’m done with school. Sometimes it can be difficult to make time to do this on your own, however. I think that this program, with its weekly schedule and assignments, will be a good way to remedy this problem. I look forward to the next “thing”!

• Jenny Levine has started a series of posts on the ALA Marginalia blog called “ALA Civics Class” to help explain the mysterious workings of ALA to members (actually, the entire blog is a great resource for anyone curious about this topic). This could help people understand what the people they’re voting for will end up doing.
• ALA has also put together a Member Benefits Guide that was posted to their facebook page recently, although I don’t remember seeing it anywhere else. It stuck in my mind because of recent online conversations (both related to the election and not) about the value of ALA to individual members. Having a clearly-laid-out list of the benefits one gets from membership might help at least some of the apathetic or disconnected non-voters to decide if it is worth it to them to remain a member.
• The upcoming virtual town hall will have an open forum for members to ask questions about any topic regarding ALA.

I know it’s unlikely that we’ll get close to 100% participation in elections, but hopefully the information from this survey and the outreach initiatives from ALA will remedy the situation at least a little. Thanks Oleg for all your work!

1. In “Students research the library” , Gina Hunter and Dane Ward of Illinois State University explain how student-led ethnographic research on student use of the library can provide valuable information to help libraries evolve to meet student needs. With the guidance of faculty and librarians, students can leverage their “native expertise” and ability to build rapport with their subjects to gather data about student behavior in the library.
2. In “Imagine: a student centered library” , Gretchen Gfeller, Desiree Butterfield-Nagy, and Hansie Grignon at the University of Maine describe their library marketing campaign for the Fogler Library, developed by a Marketing team that included student members. One of their projects that was created by this student member was a poster campaign picturing various student groups and their answer to the question, “what did we find at Fogler?” Another initiative invited student comments and feedback on their favorite place in the library in order to gather suggestions to use in redesigning spaces and services to make the library a more student-centered place.
3. “Secrets to successful mystery shopping” by Candice Benjes-Small at Radford University and Elizabeth Kocevar-Weidinger at Longwood University shares their experience applying the “mystery shopping” concept often used to evaluate retail customer service to the evaluation of service at the library. In collaboration with faculty, they used students in business classes as “shoppers” who participated in the research project for extra credit or participation points for their classes. Using students instead of professional mystery shoppers had the benefit of the participants being familiar with the academic environment and the service expectations of academic library users.

Here at UCSB, our Assistant University Librarian for Outreach and Academic Services, Brian Mathews, is also partnering with students to develop the library’s social media presence and gathering student input into the upcoming building redesign project. Recently there was a large sheet of paper set up in the library lobby asking students to write down what they wanted to see in the renovated library. Much like the easels set up at Fogler library, the setup encouraged students and other library users to enter into a conversation with each other and with library staff. Students would comment and build on each other’s comments, and as one sheet of paper filled up, staff would respond on a new sheet asking for more details on some of the most common comments. In addition to this kind of brainstorming, there is also a design contest in progress and an upcoming design charrette activity to solicit more student ideas, and a libguide for the project to communicate updates to the campus community.

These types of projects appear to benefit everyone involved. The library gets assistance in collecting data about the effectiveness of its services and the needs and desires of its users, and students get practical experience applying research methods they learn about in class. These projects can help build awareness of library services among the student population and increase students’ feeling of investment in the library. In the Gfeller, Butterfield-Nagy, and Grigon article, the student groups included in the “We found it at Fogler” campaign saw the library as being an important part of campus life at the university and reported that they felt a real sense of being a part of the larger campus community through their involvement in this campaign. Perhaps this experience will also encourage them and the students who saw the posters think of the library as a place to turn to for help in the future?

I find that I am really interested in the potential in these kinds of research and outreach projects. Students, as a major stakeholder in the library, are becoming a more active partner in designing a library that best meets their needs. To me, it parallels nicely with educational theory that calls for students to be engaged in their own learning process as partners, rather than being lectured to by experts. Much like Paulo Friere’s concern with creating a dialogue between educator and student, these student-centered initiatives involve people working together to solve problems and move forward, helping to ensure that the academic library evolves with its users.

This may not be a new trend, but if it is a trend I think it’s a step in the right direction.

With the job market how it is right now, there are many of us MLIS-holders who are still looking for employment, are employed in part-time and/or on-call or support staff positions in libraries, or employed outside of the library profession. Do we get to call ourselves librarians, or is that right reserved for those with the job title?

It may be self-serving, but I really feel that being a librarian is more than just a vocation. It is a way of looking at the world and information that does not turn off just because you may be doing something else for a living (or still looking for work). Maybe it’s because during my period of unemployment after graduation, I worked so hard to stay involved in the profession in whatever way I could, that it became part of my identity and I started really thinking of myself as A Librarian. I’m not ready to give up my dream just yet, even though I haven’t found that first professional position.

What do you think? Is a librarian something you are, or something you do? Those of you who aren’t currently working as professional librarians – do you call yourselves librarians?

I just wanted to post a quick update and say that I have a couple of things in the works that I hope to post in the next few days (fingers crossed). I have my upcoming review of Prisoners in the Palace, which got shuffled aside with everything else going on, unfortunately. And I have a post in the works about professional identity for the MLIS-holder without the “librarian” title. Stay tuned!

I blogged about First Page Panda when it was first introduced, but I wanted to give everyone another nudge to go check it out. The concept is pretty cool: they post the first page of new and upcoming children’s and YA titles. It’s a great way for authors to get exposure for their work, and a great way for readers/librarians/teachers to learn about interesting new titles.

The book I won is a YA historical novel called Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela McColl. It’s about a 16-year old lady’s maid to Princess Victoria in 1838. You can read the first page and description over at First Page Panda. My plan is to write up a brief review here after I’ve read it, so stay tuned.