Who else is using Twitter? Championing Social Media Around Campus.

There has been a growing interest in Twitter by librarians—actually by people in general. Over the past two months I’ve noticed a surge in new people joining the service.

It was reported at ACRL 2009 that “only librarians are using Twitter” in the context that students were not. I must humbly disagree. This is a perfect example of the problem of over generalization (which I am guilty of all the time!) and the need to keep it local. I counted over two hundred GT student accounts. Perhaps that is considered small compared to a population of 18,000 but 200+ people using a still-emerging technology is huge. There are far more students than librarians using Twitter at my institution. I would assume that with the proliferation of iPhones and iPhone-wannabe’s that mobile-focused websites will continue to grow rapidly.

Libraries & Twitter:  that’s an old conversation. (I wrote a column back in June 2008 & this post back in April 2008.) A year later, what really interests me now is not how libraries are using Twitter, but rather how other campus entities have adopted it. Here is a quick (and by no means comprehensive) list of organizations at Georgia Tech using Twitter:

http://twitter.com/GTDining
http://twitter.com/Georgia_Tech
http://twitter.com/gtcomputing
http://twitter.com/the_nique
http://twitter.com/GTPDIT
http://twitter.com/GTPDalerts
http://twitter.com/GT_Graduate_SGA
http://twitter.com/georgepburdell
http://twitter.com/GTAthletics
http://twitter.com/GT_Architecture
http://twitter.com/NAveBulletin
http://twitter.com/GTRugby
http://twitter.com/TechWhistle
http://twitter.com/the_tower
http://twitter.com/venturelab
http://twitter.com/GTEarthDay

I like the idea that you can get all these little news blurbs from different people on campus. From the police and computing, to the dining hall, sports, student orgs, and academic departments. You get information immediately and directly from the source-- and it all comes to you all in one place.. It also gives you a channel to respond to or to comment upon the content as well.  So yes, it’s good to step back sometimes and not just look at what other libraries are doing, but what your community is as well. What does College Dorm 2.0 look like? What about Student Government 2.0 or Campus Dining 2.0? Stop thinking about just the library for a moment and consider how others on campus communicate with students as well. How can you work together with them?

One of the things I plan to do at UCSB is to see where these different campus units are in terms of emerging tech and then trying to lend a hand in helping them become better communicators. We’ll see how that goes. The point is, most of the time when I hear librarians talking about social technologies it tends to be with a student audience in mind; however I’ve had good conversations with our admissions department and campus marketing about 2.0 topics; they want to learn from us as well. I see this as a good opportunity for librarians to become campus leaders and helping campus staff incorporate this stuff into their work flow. I imagine pulling together a quick course and then taking it on the road to various departments and organizations around campus: a 2.0 road show for support staff and office professionals.  Just an idea… I don't want to just "teach" them how to use social tech(like via brownbags), but to actually try and make a coordinated effort and conversation across campus.

Comments

[Rebecca (Zeek)]

Back in 1999 or 2000 you told me about rock star librarians. I wasn't exactly sure what you meant, but I am starting to see it. You're pretty rad.

[Amanda Clay Powers]

I completely agree. I have used Twitter Search to find local tweeps...luckily we are in small town that has a good-sized university--and our town has an odd name (Starkville), making the search pretty simple. (David Lee King has done similar things in Topeka.)

I've gotten a lot out of just being part of the local twitter community, and even with a small sampling, I've gotten a good sense of when students are doing which types of exams--and when faculty are making big pushes in their research. Invaluable for a Reference Librarian.

I've also been able to connect with people in the University I would not normally have met. One of our "pods" of twittering community members is in the Art Department (other early adopting groups included our Improv group and a media podcasting group). After twittering a talk by Karen Green, the Columbia Graphic Novels Librarian, one of the Art Department faculty members was very interested in continuing the discussion about the state of Graphic Novels at MSU. We started with Twitter, then moved our discussion onto Facebook, where we found that many of our colleagues and students across the University were interested in the subject. The faculty member decided to offer a GN class as a result this spring, and I've been auditing it.

For the Library, I'm mostly interested in how we could use Twitter as a micro-blog-feed on our site to give updates on current info from the library (like UIUC). I've also been considering twittering our CHAT reference questions and putting that feed on our Ask-a-Librarian page.

But regardless of whether or not we do anything with it here, I think for librarians it's imperative that we integrate ourselves within our community. Twitter is just another tool to that end.

[annavan]

it's def. not "only librarians"-- unless they are tweeting a ton 'bout "hannah montana," which has been showing up as a trending topic the past couple of days!!!!

[david]

i read your blog all the time as i work in an academic library and love your adoption of technology. i have other hobbies and would love to share something i've made recently (that proves all librarians are not boring!

my funny doritos ad

just don't tell my university librarian!