Thing 6 - Online networks

I've been using a number of online networks for a long time now. I started out on forums and progressed to MySpace, hideous thing that it was (you'll be pleased to hear I never had any background music on my profile, though I did have a custom background) before joining Facebook and other networks that I still use. Building on my previous post on reflection, I think the most useful way of approaching this thing for me will be to think about my current use, and consider some 'now what?' actions to improve my use of them.

Facebook

I joined Facebook quite early on, when it was only for those with university email addresses. I've never really been a massive fan of Facebook though - I only really used it to find out what old school friends are up to for the first few years, and now I use it to contact people who aren't on Twitter or if I don't have their email address. I do manage a number of professional pages on Facebook, so I use those to update people who want to use Facebook for professional purposes. I've also recently been replacing most of the 'friends' I haven't seen for 10 years or so with the professional contacts I class as friends. I also have quite a few family members who I communicate with through Facebook.

Plan of action:

• Consider purpose of using Facebook and adapt use as appropriate (probably for more personal updates than other professional networks)

LinkedIn

I also use LinkedIn, but not regularly. I only really visit when I get a request to add someone as a contact, and though I'm a member of a number of groups and receive email updates of discussions I very rarely contribute.

Plan of action:

• Update profile
• Join in relevant conversations (possibly need to streamline group memberships and change frequency of emails)
• Remember to update status at least once a month (with current projects or events)

CILIP Communities and ALA Connect

As a CILIP and ALA member (more on both of those in the next post), I have a profile on CILIP Communities and ALA Connect - again I don't really use these much and am more of an occasional lurker rather than an active contributor.

Plan of action:

• Update profile on both networks
• Add contacts on both networks
• Look for interesting groups to join in conversations
• Set up relevant alerts

Other professional online networks

I'm a member of a number of other online networks - things like LISNPN (I help manage the social media for this), LAT Network, and more recently the LIS DREaM network. I don't really ever log onto these and don't tend to join in the conversations.

Plan of action:

• Consider relevance of membership
• Investigate alerting options if considered relevant (does anyone know if you can access Spruz forums through the iPhone Tapatalk forum app?)

Last but not least, Twitter

Probably the main reason I'm not that active on some of the networks I am a member of is that I absolutely love Twitter and get most of my online networking needs from that. I follow over 1200 people on Twitter, and probably 95% of those are librarians (I do also use Twitter to communicate with some family and friends too). I don't necessarily read every tweet from every person I follow, I use private and public lists to manage Twitter. There are some people that I want to read every tweet from, so they all go into a private list that I use if I am too busy to read all tweets. I also use saved searches to follow tweets for certain hashtags I'm interested in.

Other than the lists I use and the saved searches, I treat Twitter as a conversation. If I'm online I'll join in and follow the conversation, but if I'm busy then I don't worry about checking. I might miss something, but if it's important I will find out about it later or through other means (emails, RSS etc.). I've already tidied up my lists as part of Thing 4, so I don't need to do anything with Twitter at the moment.

The future?

With any of these networks, it's the people that really make them valuable. If my network on Twitter moved over to Google+ (or any other tool), I'd move with them. I do definitely need a network that I can keep up to date with easily on the move though, so mobile access is important to me (which could possibly explain why I don't use some of the networks very much).

Thing 4 - Current awareness: other tools

As I was tidying my RSS feeds and my Twitter account, it reminded me of a few other tools I have been wanting to start using...


Read It Later

One of the reasons I don't check my feeds as often as I should is not having enough time to read the longer posts which I enjoy. Something I've been meaning to try for a while is Read It Later which Tina recommends. This works with a number of different applications across platforms and browsers so that you can send articles to read later. I've signed up and got the plugins so that I can send things from my browser or directly from Google Reader (I added it to the Send To menu). Read It Later also works with the Twitter and RSS apps I use (Osfoora HD, Twitter for iPhone and iPad, and Byline), so that you can scan items quickly and then you can read the full articles in the Read It Later iPhone or iPad app (which even works offline once you have downloaded the items). I'm impressed so far and hope I manage to integrate it into my routine so I'm not so scared to open Google Reader in future!

Zite

I keep seeing some really interesting articles being tweeted about which are from Zite (a personal news app on iPad) so I thought I'd see what it was all about. I've tried a few others of these before (Flipboard, Pulse) and have to be honest, I've not really liked them. But Zite seems to have a nice interface and integrates well with other tools. Now that I've removed my more general feeds from Google Reader, I think Zite could be a good way to browse topics that interest me when I feel like it (the equivalent of reading a newspaper every now and again). I've set up some topics and the app learns what you like by the things you rate as interesting. It's picked up some really good stuff so far, including some library blogs I already subscribe to, but also some education or tech blogs that I probably don't want to subscribe to but have the occasional item of interest to me. Really impressed with it, and love that I can tweet links directly from the app, or send longer articles to Read It Later.

Packrati.us

Another tool I've been wanting to use for a while but not got around to setting up is a way to save the links I tweet so that I can find them again in future. I've decided to use Packrati.us which adds them to my Delicious account using any tags in the tweet as Delicious tags. This seems to work well and should mean any links I think are worth tweeting will be saved. I'll see how it goes but if it's saving too many I can set it so that it will only save links if I include a certain tag (which I can define). Really flexible service - I'm impressed so far.

Pushnote

The final tool recommended for thing 4 is Pushnote, which is a way of sharing feedback and notes about websites. When you visit a site with notes or ratings you can see them, and those from your friends will be shown above others. I'd read a few other negative reviews from other #cpd23 blogs but I thought I'd give it a try to see what I thought. Unfortunately, I agree with most people - I just can't see the value of it at the moment. Maybe if it reaches critical mass in future and people actually use it, but for now it's joined the stacks of applications I've tried but stopped using - I very much doubt I'll continue using Pushnote. I did actually set up the account a while ago though I can't remember doing so (I only know because when I tried to register it said I already had an account!); I think that says it all really.

Thing 4 has been really useful for me - I already use most of the tools mentioned, but it was good to dedicate some time to maximising my use of them and organising them into a more effective system. Fingers crossed it will work in practice and I can manage my current awareness far more effectively.

Are there any other tools you would recommend I try? Let me know in the comments if so.

Thing 4 - Current awareness: Twitter

I've been using Twitter (I'm @joeyanne) since Dec 2007, though at first not many people were on there so I didn't use it much for the first few months. In the last 2-3 years it has become a very popular way for librarians and information professionals to communicate. I use it mainly to:

• follow events (and share information from events I attend)
• find out about new developments in tech, education and libraries
• share good practice 
• inform my work

I also use it to ask questions (my professional network are far more reliable than Google!), and just to get general advice (I find it particularly useful when travelling to different cities which I now do quite a lot of through work).

I currently follow over 1100 people, but I don't read every single tweet from every single person. I treat it more like a conversation tool - when I'm around I follow the conversation, when I'm not I don't. I do however make use of the list features to help me filter my tweets. The main way I do this is by having a private favourites list which I check when I'm busy. This includes my close friends and family, as well as tweets from key people within my network whose tweets I don't want to miss. My favourites list isn't static, it changes all the time so I like to use Twitter apps that support lists and editing lists (my current favourite apps are Tweetdeck for Chrome and Osfoora for iPad and iPhone).

I also usually set up public Twitter lists for events so that people can follow those attending an event without having to individually follow everyone, and I have lists of people I'd like to meet and people I have met (for example, I recently set up a list of all people I met at the American Library Association Annual Conference).

I also use text messages with Twitter - I have it set up to receive messages when certain people tweet (mainly family) so that I get those even on those rare occasions when I don't have internet connection, and I did use it to send a couple of tweets recently whilst I was in New Orleans and had no internet access outside my hotel and the conference centre. 

One thing I stopped doing (which I've started again as part of this thing) is receiving email notifications when people follow me. I was getting overloaded with them but now my email is more under control I've turned these back on as I'm finding that I forget to check my account for new followers to follow back. I've also been through my recent followers and followed some back.

Now for some other tools I played with as part of this digital tidy...

Thing 4 - Current awareness: RSS

I originally wrote thing 4 as one blog post but it turned into an epic post so I have split it into 3 separate parts - RSS, Twitter, and other tools. I've been a fan of using social media for current awareness for a while now. Managing it is my current challenge so for this thing I took the opportunity to tidy up my RSS and Twitter feeds (as well as take a quick look at Pushnote).

RSS feeds

I've been an avid user of RSS feeds for a number of years now, mainly using them to subscribe to library blogs. When I first started blogging in 2007 (and following other blogs before that), most of the library bloggers I could find were based in the US. RSS meant that I could read all about the innovative things they were doing at the libraries and I found it really inspiring. Some of these have since stopped blogging, but there are a number of these who I still subscribe to and love reading their blogs. I feel I should particularly mention (and recommend you subscribe to) Attempting Elegance, Pegasus Librarian, The Sheck Spot, and Information Wants To Be Free.

Now there are many more library bloggers in the UK, including a lot of new professionals. I enjoy reading those blogs too, as well as some of the newer library bloggers in the US such as Library Hat and Library Scenester (both of whom I got to meet at ALA Annual!). Over the years I've collected more and more feeds and it's beginning to get out of control, particularly when some of those I subscribe to post very frequently (particularly tech blogs but also some library blogs like Stephen's Lighthouse).

It was definitely time for another weed of my feeds, so today I used Google Trends to identify the feeds from Google Reader which are no longer active, as well as any I'm just not reading. I get a lot of my news from Twitter now, so I don't need the more general feeds I used to subscribe to such as tech news feeds.

I used to be pretty good at keeping up to date with my feeds, starting each morning with checking overnight emails and RSS and checking them throughout the day on my start page. But my habits and work patterns have changed and I've gotten out of the habit of checking them frequently, often to the point where I actively avoid opening my feeds for fear of how many unread items I will find. Just look how infrequently I've been checking them recently!

My reading habits for the last 30 days (the  blue bars show items published, orange bars show items read)

So as part of my clean up, I reorganised my Google Reader folders too. I have a folder of favourites (which I call A* feeds so that the folder is always on the top) and folders for other topics such as library blogs, crafts and gluten free. If I'm behind on my feeds, I can just look through the A* feeds folder which are the blogs I don't want to miss.

I also share interesting feeds on my shared items list which is publicly available (feel free to subscribe if you wish or follow me on Google Reader). I have to confess find the sharing system a little flaky though, so I also share these items to my Twitter account using Reader2Twitter. This shares the title of the post, the URL, and any notes you want to add (I use notes to add Twitter hashtags or usernames of the author or people I think might be interested).

So that's my RSS feeds organised, now time to organise Twitter...

Thing 2 - Explore other blogs

Blogging Wordle by Kristina B on Flickr

This thing took me longer than expected - so many great blogs to choose from! As I've recently returned from USA, I initially thought I would narrow it down to participants from there, though I discovered that many of them are currently behind on their things (pot... kettle... black, I know!). But as I wrote thing 3 for the programme about personal branding, I thought I'd take the opportunity to read and comment on some of those posts. I also already subscribe to a number of the blogs involved in CPD23, so I tried to discover new blogs. There were some really interesting reflections on personal branding (more on this when I write thing 3), and the ones I chose to comment on included:

• Dreaming in the stacks by Bibliojenni - who feels more comfortable with thinking of branding in terms of showing your online personality.
• CPD23 with I Read Lots by ireadlots - who was advised (at library school) to keep personal and professional interests separated. That's not something I tend to do (I favour a profersonal approach) so I was interested to hear about that.
• Thing Thinking by Archelina - who prefers to keep areas of her life separate.
• Chronicles of a Library Quest by agentK23 - because I love the hand-drawn images which form part of their brand.
• Shannon Robalino is being rather professional by srobalino - who uses some really great images in her blog posts.
• Headstrong Ways - who prefers to remain anonymous (and I am intrigued to know why).

I'm amazed by how many people are involved in the programme, there are currently over 800 registered participants! I'm really looking forward to following some new blogs :)

Thing 1 - Blogs and blogging

I know I'm late to the party - I flew out to New Orleans for the American Library Association Annual 2011 conference just as the programme was beginning so I haven't had chance to blog for a while. I'm still in New Orleans, currently writing this post in the lobby at my hotel (yay for free wifi!). The conference has ended but I'm visiting Louisiana State University library tomorrow so killing time this afternoon waiting for my Greyhound bus to Baton Rouge.

Anyway, thing 1 asks me to reflect on blogging and why I'm joining in the 23 Things for Professional Development programme. I've been a fan of the 23 Thins programmes for a while now, and last year organised a Christmas themed programme with Damyanti called 24 Festive Things (it was during advent hence 24 not 23!). I've never actually joined in one as a participant however, so I thought I'd give this programme a go.

I love the fact that it's open to all, and that it covers a variety of different topics about professional development. It's relevant to people at various stages in their career, and I am in the relatively early stages of my career (worked in libraries for 6yrs, been qualified for almost 3yrs) so am planning to use the programme as an opportunity to reflect on my skills to see where I am at the moment, where I would like to be, and how I can get there.

By nature I'm a reflective person and I find blogging a really useful way to record my reflections. I've been blogging over on my Joeyanne Libraryanne blog for just over 4 years now and find it an incredibly useful tool for personal reflection, sharing opinions, and gathering other people's ideas.

I'm currently a researcher/consultant at Evidence Base, Birmingham City University. We're part of the library there but we are a self-funded sub-department so I don't work in a library and my job isn't typical for a librarian. I love it, I get to do research into some really interesting areas of the profession and share the findings in lots of different ways. I enjoy presenting at conferences/events, and I enjoy blogging and microblogging, so I use each of these as part of the research dissemination as well as the traditional reports.

I'm just writing up my MSc dissertation on strategic marketing in academic libraries (I'm currently waiting for feedback from my supervisor), and at some point in the future would like to charter through CILIP. I'm hoping that the 23 Things for Professional Development programme will act as a way of brushing up my skills and identifying my weaknesses to help me focus future efforts.

I also hope to make new contacts and learn more about my existing contacts through other people's blogs (more on that in thing 2!).

Oh, and in addition to being a participant, I'm helping organise the programme so let me know if you have any questions (you can comment here or I'm @joeyanne on Twitter).