Sunday, 5 May 2013

Writing about Social Media in Libraries - Whittaker seeks Feedback, please!

Whittaker Live has been blogging about the performing arts for over a decade.  This Wednesday, I'm going to Birmingham, where I'll be talking to my peers about social media in academic music libraries.  I'd really appreciate your help!  What I need is feedback: when you visit Whittaker Live, do you get what you expected?  Are you likely to return to the site?  Are you favourably impressed, or disappointed?  (If disappointed, what did you hope to find?)

 I do also blog in a private capacity.  True Imaginary Friends has been my blog whilst preparing my first scholarly book for publication.  (The book was released in March 2013, so hopefully I'll soon be able to read some reviews.)  I also set up my professional development blog called Airs and Graces CPD, as part of the 23 Things project, though I only write on it occasionally now.

 As well as blogging, I tweet as @WhittakerLib and as myself @Karenmca.  During the week, I try to maintain a professional persona in either capacity.  This idea of different personae interests me, and I'm curious what other folk do.  I find I use Twitter in several quite distinct ways - this is another intriguing angle, and I wonder if anyone else has categorised their tweets like this.

 I use Diigo for social bookmarking, and sometimes share my lists.  I also occasionally use Storify.  I've made a deliberate policy not to use Facebook except for family and a very few close friends, and I'm a limited user of LinkedIn.

 If you're a librarian or a library user - any kind of library - I'd love to hear from you.  If you're part of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland community, thank you for following, and for letting me share 'your' blog with other interested parties!

4 comments:

  1. Lori5 May 2013 at 14:53

    Hi Karen,

    I always like the Whittaker Live posts - and the email bulletins (I would forget to check the blog otherwise: too many blogs on my list!). I particularly like the character/personality of the posts, it brings the content to life; sometimes making it more obviously relevant.

    Off the top of my head - hope that helps!

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  2. Ben6 May 2013 at 02:34

    Hi Karen -

    I like the mix of content, from PhD links to sharing other blogs and performing arts info. Like Lori, I rely on email bulletins rather than subscribing to RSS feeds. I tend not to follow other PhD blogs, so Whittaker is a useful aggregator.

    I blog on Tumblr for the public (links, videos, images) and on Mahara for internal RCS purposes (research skills, private reflections on interviews, reviews of shows, etc.). The fact that Mahara is effectively private allows me to be more critical where necessary without compromising my relationships with artists.

    My Twitter account is a mix of personal stuff and PhD-related information (mainly RTs). Facebook is only for personal stuff, although I am one of the overseers of the Scottish Journal of Performance page.

    I've just joined Academia.edu, mainly to display my CV and host articles and conference presentations. I prefer it to LinkedIn, which I also use, but in a more limited way.

    Ben

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  3. Unknown6 May 2013 at 02:51

    Hi Karen,

    I'm really interested in the personal-professional divide when it comes to social media.

    I started out with 2 Twitter accounts and 2 Facebook accounts, but while I still have 2 FB accounts I now only tweet from one account. I have found that Twitter works best (for me, at least) when I post a mixture of work-related and personal tweets.

    I keep the separation with Facebook as my personal account has a lot of information about me on it which I don't think it would be appropriate to share with colleagues.

    I should add that I also post on Twitter, FB and G+ on behalf of the library and so have access to those accounts, too.

    Catriona

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  4. Anonymous6 May 2013 at 08:27

    Hi Karen,

    I use two Twitter accounts- one personal and one professional. The professional one isn't strictly work-related, just general library-related tweets and RTs mostly. I also blog things related to work and study (although not very often!) and have a LinkedIn account. I'm concious of how easy it is to spread oneself too thin over social media, so I restrict professional-related social media to these three outlets.
    I also have a Facebook account but that is personal only.

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