Thing 6: Online Networks



Orkney Library & Archives at Kirkwall

I've been on Facebook since 2007 and I remember suddenly being able to reconnect so very easily with people I'd gone to school with and that had just been a few years earlier. Next all the embarassing school photos showed up. Scanners can be evil! .I've moved most of my library world updates to twitter but I still follow a number of libraries on facebook over twitter such as Manchester Libraries or Waterford County Library Service. Plus I'm a member of the ALA Think Tank Group. Too much trouble to move it. Funny Orkney Library and Archives is mentioned. While I don't 'like' their page I was on Orkey last year and so I have pictures of the building. No one but a library afficionado would take photos and maybe not even then!
I joined Linkedin later and bit by bit my profile took shape on it. Recently my cousin requested a connection. Each time I log in now I see all her updates. Apparently people spend about 8 minutes on Linkedin compared to 30 mins on Facebook. That would be true for me. People just don't put up photos on Linkedin though! From reading Sharlyn's article I should be using a photo of me and not my favoured landscape shot. How many connections is just right? Currently I have 25 connections so that puts in her Sharlyn's slot of checking once a week which is about right!

I've tried to separate out my selves so that Facebook has my personal life and Linkedin has my professional life. On Linkedin I'm part of the following groups: 23 Things, ACRL, ALA Emerging Leaders, ALA, CILIP, EDucause, LIBereurope: Heritage Collections and Preservation, IFLA, Library Research Methods, British Libary, LIberEurope: YEP!, Special Libraries Assoc. Whereas on Facebook I'm part of ALA Think Tank alone. It's interesting to see the group work on Facebook though, I think the interaction level is better.

I joined LISPN. I like Ned Potter's work as it's very straight forward and practical. I'm down as walkerabroad which is my username from as much as I can use it for. Jasper Fforde's new book The Woman Who Died A Lot has a good paragraph about librarians and the book itself is dedicated to librarians so I've included a quote from it on my profile: "Libraries were a treasured institution and so central to everyday life that government or commerce rarely did anything that might upset them. Some say they were more powerful than the military or, if not, then certainly quieter." (Fforde, Jasper. The Woman Who Died A Lot: A Thursday Next Novel 189).

I also joined the LAT Network. Before I came to library work I had been in teaching and I miss the interaction with people at that level.

I find it hard to keep up with all the various networks. I have a Google+ account but don't use but mostly because no one else I know is on it. How many networks are needed? And how many can be sustained?