Social Networking & Librarians Professional Development

1. Social Networking & Librarians Professional Development Ilene Frank and Joe Floyd TCC Online Conference April 2009

2. What is social networking? “Social Network Sites: A Definition We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system… “ -- Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

3. Examples of Social Network Tools Facebook, MySpace, Ning, LinkenIn, Twitter… and many more! A site on Mashable lists more than 350 tools. http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/

4. Why should librarians and educators care about social networking? Many people are involved in social networking! The Pew Internet & American Life Project from 2009 notes the following: • 75% of adults 18-24 yrs old have a profile on a social networking site. • 57% of adults aged 25-34 yrs old have a profile • 30% of adults age 35-44 yrs old have a profile

5. One Example: Facebook General Growth (from a Facebook press release) • More than 175 million active users • More than half of Facebook users are outside of college • The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

6. Librarians use Facebook to reach users • Facebook

7. One example of a Library using Facebook: Newberry Library Info that can be placed on FaceBook: Location, Hours, Services, Events, Photos, Videos, RSS feeds, Library catalog

8. Bulls-I@USF Tampa Library

9. Librarians using Social Networking for Professional Development Librarian professional organizations, libraries, and librarians are using social networking tools for professional development as well as for their users. ALA is a good example of a professional organization using a variety of tools.

10. ALA Facebook

11. ALA Ning

12. ALA MySpace

13. ALA Twitter

14. Another tool for social networking:Second Life

15. What is Second Life? • Second Life is an immersive multi-user 3-D virtual environment • SL has an economy. SL has money – Linden dollars – that translate into US dollars. Items and land can be bought and sold - though users can choose to participate for free. • SL is a collaborative and creative environment: Almost everything on SL is created by its residents. Residents can buy, sell, and/or give their creations to others. • SL provides for interaction via VoIP and/or text chat with people all over the world • Second Life is a persistent, shared space.

16. How Librarians Got to Second Life:Alliance Library System • Alliance Library System out of Illinois provided much of the support and helped grow the library community on Second Life starting in early 2006 http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/ • Alliance Library goal: To explore the use of virtual worlds for library services and resources • See Alliance Virtual Library http://infoisland.org/ for events, courses, library in-world locations, etc.

17. First official librarians meeting – April 2006

18. Librarian Level of Involvement in Second Life How many librarians are involved in Second Life? Acknowledging overlap of membership in the following… as of April 2009: • Librarians of Second Life Group: Almost 1300 librarians • Second Life Library 2.0 Group: 2086 librarians • Alliancesecondlife@Google Group email list : 785 librarians

19. AVL uses social networking to advertise more social networking - Second Life

20. Before we get to professional development…. Servicesfor users: Collections • Libraries on Second Life house collections: public domain books, exhibits, links to websites, special collections, online magazines, newspapers, etc. • Libraries highlight specialized interests such as science fiction & fantasy, mysteries, genealogy, women’s studies, and other research areas

21. Services for users: Reference • Reference Desk staffed for 80 hours a week with volunteers to answer questions about Second Life and general reference questions • From 1/28/07 to 7/18/08, the AVL Reference Desk counted 13,658 visitors

22. Services for users: Events • Events include poetry readings, book talks, author talks, story-telling, exhibitions, performances, etc. • 15 events scheduled on library islands between April 7 – 25, 2009. http://infoisland.org/calendar/

23. On to… Second Life – Librarians – Professional Development

24. Second Life Provides Space for Interaction for Librarians of All Types • Second Life provides… • Space for interaction between librarians from different types of libraries who might not normally meet such as school librarians, academic librarians, special librarians, archivists. • Space for Interaction between librarians from different countries • Space for interaction between library science graduate students, working professionals, and library administrators

25. Second Life Provides Opportunities for Collaboration Second Life provides opportunities for • Collaboration with other libraries, companies, educators, non-profits, and businesses to create places and information in Second Life • Collaboration across library professional organizations from American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, Association of College and Research Libraries, etc. • Collaboration with educators, technologists, and others from related organizations such as NMC, ISTE, etc.

26. Second Life Provides a Space for Continuing Education and Training Examples of continuing education • Courses in librarianship in virtual worlds held in Second Life • Meetings to discussion special topics in librarianship – Library Buzz sessions • Educational sessions on using Second Life itself

27. Continuing Education: A Talk on Web 2.0 and Libraries by R David Lankes

28. Continuing Education – Attending Conferences"What is the Library of the Future?" debate. JISC Conference. Second Life – April 2, 2009

29. Second Life provides new ways to get involved in library professional organizations: ALA ALA event from 2008 Photo by Yukali http://www.flickr.com/photos/yukali/

30. ALA events in Second Life

31. Another professional organization represented in Second Life: ACRL ACRL Meeting 2008 Yukali http://www.flickr.com/photos/yukali/

32. Library Science Grad Students LIS Student Union

33. Grad students learn to do reference. Working the Ref Desk

34. Second Life provides learning opportunities for up-and-coming librarians. Grad students at San Jose State University learning how to use SL

35. More for Graduate Students: Schools of Library and Information Science • San Jose State University, University of South Carolina, University of Hawaii, and others are using Second Life as part of their graduate programs for library and information science students • San Jose State University: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-9zt3Sd7oc

36. Second Life – A place to find a job?? Placement Activities: Library Career Fair • The Library Career Fair, May 8th, (2009) is being managed by the LIS Student Union under Adra Letov and DaisyBlue Hefferman.  The Career Fair events will include: Orientations for new avatars (librarians, students, and staff), an LIS Career Resource Center with links to global job postings, speakers on survival skills for getting a job in a bad economy, resume tune-up, and what employers are looking for in today's media-rich Web 2.0 information environments.  If you are interested in posting positions or working with the Career Fair in some way, please contact Diane Nahl, SL: Adra Letov, at nahl@hawaii.edu.

37. Second Life provides new publishing opportunities Books and articles

38. Librarians are putting on conferences and presentationsabout Second Life in Real Life….

39. Librarians are putting on conferences and presentations IN Second Life http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds/index.html

40. Virtual Worlds Libraries, Education, Museums - party from2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/librariandreamer/

41. This brings us to another thing librarians do in Second Life: Socialize! Librarians at the TX950 club http://www.flickr.com/photos/srharris/

42. Resources/Credits Any questions? Contact • Ilene Frank (Ilene Pratt in Second Life) ifrank@lib.usf.edu • Joe Floyd (Joe Cupola in Second Life) jfloyd@lib.usf.edu Some sources we consulted: • Gerry McKiernan. Not Just Facebook: Online Social Networks For Librarieshttp://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/IL2008-DC.ppt • Alliance Virtual Libraries: http://infoisland.org/