Just came from a session by Joe Murphy from Yale on Twitter. He made the comment that blogging is a bit old fashioned and that Twitter was the way to go (because the content is more immediately and directly available to users).
His paper was great, and has me thinking about how I can use Twitter in my library - although it does seem like a big investment of time to run it properly for reference/information services.
I’d be curious to hear what others think about this. Are you using Twitter professionally or for your library, or just personally? Will blogging like this be replaced by Twitter?
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I liked what Joe had to say, but couldn’t help thinking that this exact same presentation might be even more interesting in 2011, when librarians have had more of a chance to implement Twitter professionally, giving us some more concrete examples of best practices.
There was a particularly vibrant Twitter discussion (kind of an echo, actually) going on during the presentation. I was particularly curious about the distinction that librarians have to make between personal and professional tweeting. We saw where Joe comes down on the issue–he has a Twitter account he uses personally, and an institutional account he uses to communicate professionally–but I wonder if a successful balance between the two modes of expression can’t be struck.
You’re right about the investment it might take to run Twitter properly for reference/information services. While few answers for that exist currently, I found myself brainstorming ways I could integrate it into instruction. Having this sort of “echo-chamber” could facilitate class discussion and add another level of active learning and inquiry. It certainly made “tweeting about Twitter” such a mind-expanding experience today.
Hi Jack,
Thanks for this! You’re right about needing to wait to find out about best practices. I’d also be curious about user responses to using Twitter for reference help.
I was wondering if it could be incorporated into instruction for on the fly question and answer between librarians and students (say for feedback on whether students ‘got’ a particular concept).
I’m not sure that tweeting will replace this type of blogging. I think they are trying to accomplish different types of communication. If anything, they could complement each other. You can’t go into an in-depth discussion on Twitter without quickly creating a giant thread. For example, I follow Robert Llewellyn (of Red Dwarf fame) on Twitter, and he was complaining just this morning that threads get so convoluted that people misunderstand what the initial point was.
Hi Joshua,
I think you’re right about these being different forms of communication. I like having the space of a blog to have more in-depth discussions. I was surprised that Joe Murphy said that he doesn’t have time to read blogs - I know we’re all really busy, but I worry if we don’t even have time to read blogs anymore!
I find it interesting that he doesn’t have time to read blogs either. Sadly the students at my college seem to a little behind the curve, I wish I could bring them up to speed.