Is there anyone out there?

Very interesting Things this week. Although I signed up to LinkedIn last year I have not really use it until the last few months when I have had a number of 'link' requests so have used it a bit more. This weeks Thing seems to be about LinkedIn v Facebook. I would agree with Reid Hoffman that Facebook is for home and LinkedIn for the office. I have accounts on both and have always taken the view that LinkedIn is my professional networking whilst Facebook is for keeping in contact with friends. My husband says that his company actively uses LinkedIn for recruitment, training etc.. .  I think LinkedIn is invaluable for becoming better known particularly if you have a business or a particular skill to promote.

Although I tend to think that Facebook is really a 'social' space I can see the value of promoting the library service or having a presence on it. Saying this I think that it is really important that the library Facebook page is not allowed to stagnate and should be updated at last twice a week to keep it fresh and interesting.  We intend to setup a Facebook page for our libraries for one term to see if this method of communicating information would be of benefit to our users.

I have not used LISNPN but can see it would be of great use if I were a new professional - I wish this had been in existence when I first qualified (some time ago now!). I must admit I did feel rather isolated and this site would have been brilliant.

I was interested to learn about the LATnetwork, I think that this could be really useful. I have thought for sometime now that library training should have some element of teaching experience incorporated. This is particularly useful for anyone working in education - librarianship has come a long way from stamping books.

I was not aware of Google+ but am not surprised that they want to introduce something like this - world dominance springs to mind. I think one of the problems is that there are now so many networking sites that soon we shall need a guide to where to start. I think that these sites will have to start to specialise in order to make their site stand out. It also gets confusing for a novice like me. Soon we shall spend all our time in front of a computer, the art of old fashioned face-to-face conversation might become a Thing of the past!

Mirror, mirror....................

Well week 7 already, my how time flies. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I was skeptical about the value of this course but now after 12 Things I am a convert. I never thought that I would enjoy this course so much. I have learnt many new Things that I shall be able to use at work, personally and professionally.

I originally signed up to keep abreast of the new technological changes and to gain some understanding of the ways in which 'young people' communicate. Although our intake is 25+, it will not be long before new students will want to communicate via these methods. In fact I have already had a 'young' 43 year old ask me to renew his library books via Facebook! Although it may be sometime before the majority of our students use electronic tools to communicate other than email, it is good to be prepared (yes I was a Girl Guide!).

Of all the Things we have learnt to date, the iGoogle page, the Google Calendar and Delicious (I already used Doodle) have proven to have the most immediate relevance. As this is a reflection week, we will be spending time setting up a shared Google Calender and organising our Delicious accounts so we can share bookmarks. Although some Things I shall only use occasionally such as Twitter because I don't see the point of it, there are others that I will use when the occasion arises such as Slideshare (resources awareness is a great thing).

It goes without saying that this course has increased my confidence, awareness and skills. I look forward to Monday mornings and the challenges that are set. Although I have enjoyed some Things more than others, it has been a steep learning curve but one I am enjoying a great deal. Well done the Cambridge team for producing this course.