Dumpling in a Hanky

On the 24th of April, I went along to the National Library of Scotland to attend the SLA Europe event “Meeting, Tweeting and Fb’ing” , which promised to cover topics such as “how useful is social media for libraries? Can Facebook really help me to promote what I do? What benefits can using LinkedIn bring me as an information professional? “ We began with Bryan Christie of the National Library of Scotland (NLS) giving us an overview of the aims and activities of the NLS on social media. The purpose of this approach is to increase the NLS’ digital presence, and raise awareness of the interesting, non-digital materials within its collections, especially to a younger audience. Bryan views a relevant social media presence as being like journalism – you have to find the interesting information. He’s found that posts on Twitter publicising material from the NLS collections is driving traffic to the NLS website, for more information on these materials. Examples of traffic-creating posts o...

I'm the first to admit, I love social media stuff. I've been on Twitter for almost 5 years, I (slightly grudgingly) eventually joined Facebook around the same time, and have played with all sorts of thing in between, from Formspring to Pinterest. However - my use of all those sites is almost exclusively personal (apart from Twitter, which is actually heavily weighted towards work-relevant networks). There's not actually much need that I can see to do anything involving social media in its current form for my own library service. I do enjoy reading about how academic and public libraries are furthering the use of their resources and exploring how to best use sites, using Facebook to inform users about events and service specifics, Twitter to respond to individuals, and Pinterest to collate interesting visual materials...but it just doesn't work in my situation. As a corporate librarian, I'm in a very different position from a public or academic librarians, in rel...

I'm such a copycat: I saw Karen Blakeman's visual LinkedIn network on her blog, and thought I'd see what mine looked like... I've taken out my name at the centre, and the shareable version strips out contact names, but I seem to have 3 separate worlds - orange is workmates, past and present. Blue is personal/real life contacts, green is online/social networks contacts, and pink are library-but not via-social-network contacts. Methinks you can see that work and social/personal don't really overlap in my life, although some of the colour coding, as Karen says, seems to be entirely random. But it's still quite pretty, all swirly and stuff!

Yes, I'm the type of gal who likes to mess about and try new tools and sites. So, nine months ago, Formspring seemed like an amusing timewasting tool - people can ask you questions, either putting their name to them (usually a Twitter name), or anonymously. You then can answer them, and post the responses in your Formspring stream, either for the world to see, or only to your followers (I'm not sure if this was originally an option). You can also follow other people, and ask them questions too, so it can be quite interactive. Yes, I know it was and still is attracting bad publicity for the fact that school kids use it to bully each other, but school kids can and will use anything to bully each other, from verbal abuse, notes written and passed around, text messages, or messages on various popular sites that over time have moved from MySpace, to Bebo, to Facebook and Twitter. Just because some people misuse it, doesn't mean a tool is inherently bad. And as an adult, if I di...

So, the imminent death of Bebo has been announced. I say death, as it seems unlikely anyone will want to buy an ailing social networking website in an English-speaking market dominated by Facebook . I was on Bebo. For a while. Then I remembered that I hate people who talk in txt spk (vowels are there to be used, in my world), and witter mindlessly about drinking, and clubbing, and shopping. I grew out of that long ago, but it seems to be the main reason for Bebo's continued existence. Being on it feels like a teenage contest of who was more drunk / spent more money / plastered more makeup on / fell over more. Hence me deleting my account some time ago (along with my MySpace one). And I'm retreating from Facebook more too: the effort to hide the endless updates from games that people are playing is annoying; I don't need it to suggest friends for me, or patronisingly tell me to help other people find friends; I don't want to play games endlessly - I work; I don't ne...

Yay, it's almost time for the festive grumbling-about-suppliers and muttering-about-budgets SLLG Christmas meeting! And the musical speed-networking chairs game! No Scottish law librarian Christmas is complete without it! It's that time of year again. This year's Christmas networking meeting will be held on Wednesday 9th December at 4pm in the SSC Library . Christine Wilcox has kindly offered to be host again and the meeting will be sponsored by Avizandum. We will be sticking to our usual "speed networking" format followed by the ever-popular "mulled wine and mince pies" format. If you would like to come please let me know and if you have any suggestions for discussion topics, even better. If you're a member of the Scottish Law Librarians Group, I hope to see you there. And *ssshhh*...I may even bring along some teeth-melting tablet too... Also, while typing the title to this post, I created what I believe to be a new type of meeting: "new...

Have you noticed the little 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' icons underneath those ads that appear (in new-look Facebook) along the right hand side of your screen? Facebook allows you to rate these adverts, as shown in the text of the popup displayed below: Tell us what you think Why didn't you like this ad? Choose reason: Misleading Offensive Pornographic Uninteresting Irrelevant Repetitive Other Thanks for your feedback. Over time, this information helps us deliver more relevant ads to our users. I have been studiously grading the adverts I get over the past few days, marking almost all of them as either 'uninteresting' or 'irrelevant', and actually, the amount of ads I'm now seeing for 'miracle diets' (wow, there's an incredible range of insane diets out there!) , debt management companies, 'free' stuff, ways to live like a celebrity, fundraising as a mother (why that one for me? I don't have kids, unless I've got rea...

I was allowed out last week (yes, entirely unsupervised! Well, apart from Lorna...) to attend a free Society for Computers and Law event on " Facebook and Social Networking Sites: Cyber-Stalking Paradise 2.0 " Yes, I'm a sad geek, but hey, t'was free! The presentation was by Professor Lilian Edwards, who was an entertaining and informative speaker. The lack of inbuilt privacy in Facebook wasn't new to me (I'd been in and fiddled with the settings to 'lock down' my profile only to approved friends, and block some people from finding me almost as soon as joining last September), but the discussion of why the site is so 'open' was something I'd not really thought about before. Facebook was set up to be open, to allow social groups comprised of school years with school issued email addresses to network, and act as an online yearbook. Which was fine when those were the only people using the system, but when it was opened up to general use, there...

I finally weakened and decide to see what was going on with Twitter. I joined in January 2007, but never used it, as I didn't know anyone else who did, or ever would. But now, I do know people who use it...perhaps it's finally reached critical mass for me? There's no guarantee I'll actually make much use of it, but it seems more interesting when there's people you're interested in posting on it. And it's letting me rant about my crappy day while my boss isn't there to hear it... I'm a Luddite, but I'm also always willing to change my mind if I can be persuaded of the usefullness of things! I was going to say it's like the opposite to my Facebook account, in that it's workmates only, whereas Facebook is friends only, then realised I've got a bit of crossover of both on Facebook. Note to self - the next social network you join needs to have a way of separating out groups and allowing them only a certain amount of access to you. "Wo...

I've foolishly been allowed to organise a training event for the Scottish Law Librarians Group , and if you're a member of the SLLG, it's free for you to attend, yay! Why Web 2.0? The opportunities and challenges for the legal sector You are cordially invited to a seminar which looks beyond the hype at the challenges and opportunities Web 2.0 provides for information professionals in the legal sector. James Mullan will explore some of the technologies that are currently available and provide practical examples of how these can be used within an Information Services unit. There will then follow a chance for those who wish to investigate these tools to experiment with them on the computers provided, and have informal discussions with James about any of the topics covered in his presentation. James Mullan works as an Information Professional at a large city law firm and is an active blogger, owning the Running Librarian Blog. He is a well known Web 2.0 evangelist and admin...

If it appeared to come from Facebook, and just asked you to confirm your name, date of birth and email address? Or would you give an old school friend your eBay password? Apparently, those details were enough for scammers to steal money from individuals who'd been perhaps a little too forthcoming with personal information on social networking sites. It does seem that they were perhaps using some of their personal information that they also publicly shared as passwords, but still, how much do you trust Facebook and similar sites? Would you be as wary about clicking links in an email that appeared to come from them or giving personal info as you would if it came from a stranger? Do we now trust these sites more than banks, to the extent that an email from them must be authentic and reliable?

I find myself spending less and less time on Facebook recently, and most of that time is spent looking at notifications, and clicking on ‘ignore’, because I don’t want to join the Oregon Trail, or allow my friends to buy and sell me.. . A large part of the problem is applications that insist you invite friends (generally at least 20) before you can see your results / scores / what other people have said about you. If I add one of those applications, and it demands I invite my friends to play too, I just exit, and uninstall it. I like my friends too much to bombard them with invites every time I decide to while away some time playing a quiz! It seems even Facebook themselves have finally realised that the amount of invites / notifications to play whatever game your friends are playing at the time is statring to get ridiculous. I noticed today that this information has appeared in my News Feed: Too many requests? We've added a "clear all" option for when you have ...

An article in The Guardian discusses " Facebook whales" , individuals with more than 1000 'friends'. I personally have currently got 42 friends, all of whom I either know in real life, or know of professionally. I'm polite and add people that ask, if I know them, but if I don't really have any interest in them, I delete them a few weeks later. I can't even begin to imagine how you would try and manage that size of a network (allegedly, humans cope best with a network of between 100-200 individuals), and to be fair, Mr MacLeod does actually admit that he doesn't read the news feed. Which leads me to wonder why he uses the site, if it's not for keeping up with the activities of the people he's interested in? Is he just friend collecting for the show-off element: "I've got SO many more friends than you, I'm so much more worthwhile"? Anyhoo, I'd definitely like Facebook to develop a way to turn off certain peoples feeds, or c...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apologised nicely for the mistakes they made with the introduction of Beacon, their purchase tracking / advertising software. They do seem to run the site a bit like awkward teenagers - trying new things out, pushing the boundaries to see what they can get away with...then going all red and embarrassed when things don't work out quite as they planned... In the UK, they'd probably be an unplanned parent by now...will be interesting to see what sproglets Facebook may spawn!

Well, they've responded quickly , as usual...do you think their motto's a variation of Googles? "Do only the evil you can get away with, but if anybody's upset, fix it"? Not really so snappy, but they do seem to be quite quick with their responses to issues...even if it was an odd concept in the first place. I'd go nuts if a site decide to share what items I was buying, and where, with a loosely connected network of friends, colleagues, and people-I-went-to-school-with, who-don't-understand-that-there-are-good-reasons-we-lost-touch....

I knew it was a bad idea signing up to that thing! :-) I did know about not being able to delete your account , but it's one of those things, you only want to be able to do it in concept, you want the option, but might well never use it. I know I wouldn't actually bother deleting my MySpace, Bebo or Facebook accounts, mainly because I occasionally get contact from people through them, there's nothing on them that's 'dodgy', and they're an amusing way to while away some time sometimes (but would people puhlease stop trying to turn me into a vampire on Facebook?!!?). But what about those people who signed up with their 'proper' name, then reconsidered their membership later? I know of people who've adopted a child, and don't want the childs 'interesting' family to be able to find them after...how do they get themselves off it? Or the people who've unfortunately become the object of some over-attentive online friends obsession? I as...

Between frantically finalising my portfolio for my Chartership application with CILIP, catching up before holiday, going on holiday, catching up AFTER holiday, running back and forth to vets with a suicidal cat…it’s been a busy month! Not to mention the fact that me and my library are moving to another floor as a result of expansion, which just so happens to occur when I’m on holiday, and means I’ll be crossing my fingers that it’s all packed up properly, then reshelving the whole lot in its new location, whilst covering two offices as my boss is then on her holiday next week…my firm do like us to multitask! In the meantime, I’ve been reading about Wyoming libraries mudflap girl campaign, Sony’s ‘ sexier than a librarian ’ campaign, favourite library blogs have been surveyed , virtual picket lines and demonstrations in Second Life, social networking and its business usefulness / timewasting, Enquiring Minds Want to Know has moved to a snazzy new site, The Annoyed Librarian has...

I love my social media: blog-hopping, forum-chatting, IM-ing…yet there’s a large number of my friends who don’t feature on any of these. They’re not technologically averse, these technologies just don’t fit easily into their lives. Take one friend for example: she works part-time, has two small children, and a busy family life. She’s got no spare time to spend on forums and blogs…she’d rather just pick up the phone and call me, or send a text! She misses out on little bits of my life that others don’t…my random thoughts and recent events are often posted on my personal blog, and online friends read that, so when I actually talk to them in person, they’re often quite aware of what’s going on in my life. Non-online friends aren’t, and sometimes I almost resent having to tell them about my life, as I feel I’ve already done that ‘work’ on my blog. I wonder if, as I get more web-based in my social interactions, these friends will continue to be close friends, or whether somet...

BIALL have sent out their call for papers for the Dublin study weekend, Thursday 12th – Saturday 14th June 2008. The theme is: BEYOND THE PALE Planning for the Next Information Generation Topics they’d like to cover include: • The future impact of digitisation of data • Probable trends in respect of electronic resources • How does information become knowledge • The growth of globalisation of legal resources • Will librarians be needed in 2010 ? You know, I’m even actually considering submitting for a parallel session…what’s the point of being a Web Monkey if I can’t share the fun? Now, to try and work out a topic that I know enough about, that's useful, and that I can make reasonably entertaining...any ideas? More information here .

. ...is that you can't control where they're placed, as First Direct and Vodaphone have just discovered . Facebook do seem to be quite quick off the mark for technical fixes once they're pointed out, but if companies c an’t currently choose their placement, and if Facebook introduce that ability, I can see fights over who’s paid what to go where breaking out!