Keep in touch, won't you?

I am constantly wary of Facebook. For example, I am wary of the time that it takes from my life, the way that it feels that it "owns" my personal pictures and the information that is shared each time you join a group or add an app or a game. Because of this I tend to limit the ways that I use Facebook. I simply skim through status updates, look at people's pictures and keep tabs on my sister who lives in California.

Richardson (2010) and much of the reading that I have been doing for this course over the past months (many random blog posts and articles) heralds the use of Facebook as being more than I am using it for.

There has to be a better way for me to use Facebook. As David Lee King (2008) suggests, there are many ways for a library to use Facebook. This week I decided to branch out and create a Facebook page for the library. This is a different option than a profile because Facebook pages don't have friends, they have fans. It was tricky to set up the page because the set up of a page for an organization is different than establishing one for a person. I called my brother to help me with some of my questions and the rest I learned through use. Even though I muddled my way through, in the end the McMath Library officially has a social networking presence!

My goal for the Facebook page is to help give the library more relevant, to inform students of new books and draw them in with YouTube book trailers, to give students updates about events in the library, and to provide them with Web 2.0 links that might interest them or help them in their classes. 

It was difficult for me to publicize our new Facebook page just because I have a fear of rejection. I am afraid that I will only have 3 people "liking" the library for the rest of the year. But in the end I put up a new window display to share our new Facebook page with the students. I will also be putting it into the announcements after Spring Break. I think that the most important part of making this work in the school is updating the page frequently with things that the kids are interested in. It will be important to keep my audience in mind as I'm thinking of my updates. Chris Bourg (2008) gives me hope that my Facebook page may become a relevant part of the school community but I know that it will take awhile. As of right now, I still only have 3. Sigh. 

Shelfari and LibraryThing are also helpful social networking tools for librarians. I have created accounts with both and primarily use Shelfari for personal use and LibraryThing for our school library blog. In LibraryThing you can create a widget for Blogger that is a rotating slideshow of book covers that you want to highlight. We use this to highlight new books that we have added to our collection. The best part is that under "Add Books" you can simply scan the ISBN and the system is able to locate the book to add the cover to your widget. The widget is directly linked to Blogger and the covers are updated automatically. Less work = Library love!


Another social networking platform is Ning.com where you can actually create your own social network around a topic.  In my exploration of Ning this week I joined Classroom20.com. It took a day to be approved (whereas my application for ArtSnack was approved within hours) but once it went through I was free to set up my page and start exploring. I also joined the TLNing for teacher librarians. This site has 5,656 members! I'm sure to find some great ideas there with that many people contributing.

I was searching for a way to make Ning something that I would be using long term and that meant finding some serious value in it. Since Ning is all about networking with others, it makes sense that I found that value on the forum page. The forum page of Classroom20.com is nicely organized by topic and I simply scrolled down to find a topic that interested me. While looking for more information about creating effective presentations, I found a thread with  information about successful Prezi presentations complete with links to YouTube videos, tips and suggestions for use. Perfect! I'm seeing value already. 

To get into Ning deeper I joined the Classroom 2.0 Beginner Group. After taking this course I don't know if I would consider myself a beginner anymore but this group has recent activity and quite a few members which promises a lot of conversation (most questions asked on the discussion board have more than 5 answers). People use the discussion board as a way to ask questions, answer questions or share resources. I am helping a friend develop a iPad program for 5 year olds for a summer teaching program at a fancy private school. I put out a call for iPad app suggestions on the discussion board and got three responses. Just to compare, I also put the question out on Twitter but I only got one response. The responses made on both platforms were unique and incredibly useful and will help me with program development.

I also joined TLNing and the groups High School Teacher Librarians and Web 2.0 in the Library World. These groups are modestly active and I got some good ideas for some contests that I can run towards the end of the year to get more books circulating. 

I think Ning is a good way to find a group of people with similar learning interests who are willing to help each other get better at what they do. This might be especially beneficial for new teachers who can use all the help and support that they can find in this new and often overwhelming job!

References

Bourg, C. (2008). Our library Facebook page. Retrieved on March 10, 2011 from http://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/our-library-facebook-page/.

King, D. L. (2008). What can you do with a Facebook page? Retrieved on March 9, 2011 from http://www.davidleeking.com/2008/10/09/what-can-you-do-with-a-facebook-page/.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.