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We haven't blogged much this summer. But we've moved books round, catalogued a ton of stuff, updated a stack of library guides (find them on the library pages of the Conservatoire Portal) ... 

And we've been to conferences and (of course) taken it in turns to have holidays.  

Follow us on Twitter @WhittakerLib or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gillies.whittaker

We're still here!  Keep in touch. 

When Good Research Goes Viral, by Diane Rasmussen Neal

Via Mendeley, we've heard of this really useful chapter about using social media to extend the reach of your research. And here's a link to the entire chapter: When Good Research Goes Viral, by Diane Rasmussen Neal

The article is in Social Media for Academics: A Practical Guide (2012) pp. 161-173 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Step Dancing in Scotland (Read a Research Paper)

This intriguing paper appears on the academic networking site, Academia.edu - it's by Mats Melin and was published by the Elphinstone Institute:- 

'Putting the dirt back in” - an investigation of step dancing in Scotland

Author: Mats Melin 

Researchers will probably be aware that there are a variety of social media networking sites where scholars can share details of their publications and research activities, and engage in useful discussion with people at other institutions.  Academia.edu and ResearchGate.net are just two of them.  Publishers like Sage and Emerald also try to encourage a sense of community amongst their scholarly authors.

It's fair to say that some people aren't keen on Academia and ResearchGate because the statistical information could be used for commercial purposes.  Nonetheless, as you see, these websites are useful to supplement what individuals post on their institutional repositories or personal websites, because of the networking angle!

Record of a Day - UWS Social Medians Visit Whittaker Library

Evidence of a great visit!  We do enjoy talking to our counterparts about issues that we all hold dear!

Library Social Medians!

Meet Whittaker!

Social Media: Library Outreach and Professional Networking

We're having a get-together with social medians from the University of the West of Scotland library service tomorrow. It'll be a good opportunity to talk about what they do, and what we do at the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

• We blog (here, on Whittaker Live)
• We tweet @WhittakerLib    https://twitter.com/WhittakerLib
• We do Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/wheesht/
•  We do Pinterest for visual things https://uk.pinterest.com/whittakerlibrar



And here's Twittaker!

• And we do MailChimp for news about electronic resources  http://mailchimp.com/ 

 Sometimes Karen wonders if you can have too much of a good thing, because she also uses social media for research purposes, too.  And then she talks about it (the social media, and the research) - here's something she blogged about a couple of years ago.  Things have changed a bit since then, research-wise, but you might find this summary interesting:- 

The Jungle Beat of the Tweet

(And this is Karen's all-purpose research and teaching blog.  Libraries do get a mention, but in a rather different way!  https://karenmcaulay.wordpress.com/)

Social Media in the Whittaker Library

Welcome! You've found our blog!  Did you know we also have Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest accounts?  

• Twitter 
• Facebook 
• Pinterest - currently showcasing Shakespeare materials for Shakespeare 400.

The team shares responsibility for different social media accounts, but our common aim is to bring you interesting performing arts-related links, news, and to profile significant parts of our collection or new acquisitions that we think might interest you.

Our staff and students also get regular updates about new electronic media resources - all part of the service from the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

IMPACT! Do You Use Social Media to Publicise Your Research?

There's an informative piece in the latest issue of Times Higher Education.  Read the whole article HERE.

"Twitter and blogs are not add-ons to research

28 August 2014 | By Chris Parr

"The best academics are those that build a form of public dialogue into their work...."

Social Media, Anyone? Guardian Media Culture Professionals Network Shares Tips

Karen's favourite culture website offers useful tips on one of her particular interests - social media for professional networking.  Take a look ...

Social Network Culture

Reddit - Introduced by the Guardian Culture Professionals Network

Do you use Reddit?  It's a social media website that the author of this article describes as highly influential, but perhaps not as well-known as it should be.

So we need to know about it!  Read the Guardian article here.

Find Reddit itself, here.

(No prizes for guessing where Karen's curiosity will be heading this weekend, then!)

Effective Use of Social Media

The recent IAML (UK and Ireland) Annual Study Weekend saw a new innovation - the "Quickfire" sessions.  Karen chaired a couple of sessions on effective social media use in music libraries, before she fled for the last Scotland-bound plane of the day.

It's fair to say Karen has embraced social media both on behalf of the Whittaker Library and in her own name, but she restricted her comments to library activities for these sessions.

BLOGGING

This Whittaker Live blog was established in 1999 – there have been changes over the years, most notably abandoning the attempt to find weblinks on weekly lecture topics.  Students can find that for themselves these days!  

Content is drawn from various sources:- stock acquisitions, forthcoming events, links to other relevant postings eg Bibliolore, and news about competitions and summer courses.  

·       It’s possible to schedule blogposts, but we don't generally do so.

TWEETING

Karen tweets as @WhittakerLib by day, and @Karenmca by night.  The @Whittakerlib account is the slightly younger of the two, started because there should be separation between library-related tweets and personal ones.  This is very important, because:-

• It also enables others to tweet.   
• It keeps tweets library-related.
• It enables the library to have its own persona.
• It means non-library related chat stays outside the workplace, and anything connected with Karen's research interests doesn't clutter up the library's message.
• Messages to the Library go to our generic email account, which anyone can access.     

When Karen is using Twitter in her own right, she “favourites” links or RTs them to @Whittakerlib, but she also makes heavy use of Diigo – social favouriting.  This means any interesting links that she finds in her spare time can be saved for use either on the blog or on Twitter next time she's in the library.

DIIGO

There’s a feed from Karen's own Diigo list through to the Whittakerlive blog, but the app enables her to mark as private anything that's not to be shared.  Diigo is excellent for accessing favourites from any device you’re using, and for storing content for future use.

Bufferapp 

This is a great way of scheduling tweets!

FACEBOOK

We don't use Facebook professionally; Karen has chosen to keep her account purely for a handful of family and close friends, and a select few others.  Separation of personal and private is very important indeed, to convey a professional impression.  Having said that, the library’s canvas Wheesht bags did have their own Facebook page ...!

Social media - for tips on types of tweets try @Buffer recommendations

Want to know how to get more traffic to your tweets?

How the Founder of Buffer Tweets: The System and 5 types of Tweets to Keep your Followers Engaged

The Jungle Beat of The Tweet

'Whittaker' was meant to be in Birmingham giving a presentation on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, a virus (real, not cyber) prevented 'him' from being there.

The presentation was all about using social media for outreach.  Here it is, for anyone who's interested!  I understand that it provoked quite a bit of discussion, so I've since written another powerpoint - Multiple identities in social media.  I'm sharing that one here, too.

The jungle beat of the tweet from Karen McAulay

Multiple identities in social media from Karen McAulay

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!

Indonesian CDs - an uplifting story

Three cheers for social media!

Further to Whittaker's frustrations with the Indonesian CD series ...

It is truly astounding what the internet can achieve!  Within a few minutes, we'd contacted someone in Heidelberg who did their doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies.  And they contacted someone else, who was actually in Indonesia at the time.  A third person volunteered his assistance via Twitter.

When Whittaker returns after 'his' week off, it will be to explore the information he's been so kindly sent.  

Keep watching this space!

Whittaker's Holiday Websurfing

Whittaker admits that 'he' wondered what to share with you today after the holidays.  So, rather like Alistair Cooke's Letters from America, here are Whittaker's Postcards from Cyberspace:-

• The Scottish Book Trust promotes Scottish literature - well worth a look, if you're interested in what's up and coming in the world of books.
• The Scottish Music Centre is another vital link for musicians, but have you ever explored their Membership Schemes?  Make that a New Year's Resolution, maybe!
• Edinburgh University Library's 'special collections' department is now called the Centre for Research Collections.  If you're researching historical Scottish music sources, it's an essential port of call.  Find out more here.
• 'Whittaker' heard about a new social media website, RebelMouse, which aggregates your activities across a wide variety of platforms.  A bit like Paper.li, but you might like to experiment with it to see if it suits you.  Here's mine - and all I did was set up my account!  The rest is done for you.

Trending: RebelMouse

RebelMouse is a new site which aggregates your social media postings.  'Whittaker' (aka Karen McAulay) is an early beta user, acting as your guinea-pig to see how it all works.

And this is how!

Definitely worth a look: https://www.rebelmouse.com/

Rules of Social Media - useful guide

Here's a helpful social media poster, to help avoid any embarrassing boo-boos!

Writing Britain

Whittaker's weekend has been extaordinarily varied - a vastly delayed overnight train still left time to visit the Writing Britain exhibition at the British Library on Friday morning.

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/writingbritain/about/index.html

Friday afternoon was a social media conference; then Monday saw me heading to Cambridge University Library for a meeting, and then to hear a lecture, at the Library and Information History Group.

But although all these activities were really good, the jewel in the crown was that fabulous, wonderful exhibition, full of the most evocative and inspiring books, manuscripts and illustrations. To find gathered together so many books that I knew or had read about, and to be reminded also of some childhood favourites, was a delightful way to spend a couple of quiet hours.

Whittaker rhapsodized appropriately to the staff, then wafted off contentedly to Farringdon and the 21st century for the social media event.

If you have spare time in the London. Euston/St Pancras area, why not go and check out the British Library Writing Britain exhibition? I think you'll be glad you did!

Social Media for Organisations

Not performing arts-specific, but this might be interesting within our community:-

UKeiG (United Kingdom einformation Group) course:-

Social Media for Organisations: Getting the Basics Right. Megan Roberts and Ned Potter

More here.

Ways to use Twitter for educational purposes

Worth a look - here.