Thing 7 - Twitter

Now this is one post I was actually very much looking forward to writing! Our Library had agreed a while ago that having a presence on Twitter and Facebook would be beneficial, and we had been planned to set it up this summer, so I took advantage of the 23 Things programme to kill two birds with one stone - check us out at MMLLib!

Personally I am a fan of Twitter, having been introduced to it last year by one of my colleagues who is one of the most enthusiastic Twitter fans I know. I find it an excellent professional tool and use it mainly for professional development, which inevitably involves keeping up to date with what more intelligent people (and wittier) than yours truly have to say on various issues I would probably not bother seeking a regular update on. Interestingly, I've noticed that I've become much more dependent on it since I've set it up on my shiny new BlackBerry, which tends to support Twitter much better than Facebook as I want more out of Facebook than simply the status updates. But beware, Twitter has a very addictive side to it, you won't be able to leave it alone.

One of the drawbacks of having greatly delayed my start on the 23 Things programme is that I missed out on so many interesting comments posted by fellow professionals here in Cambridge: I do find it slightly disheartening to know that the more people you follow, the more likely you are to miss useful/interesting comments due to the sheer volume of information tweeted. For example, it is seriously making me rethink the number of newspapers that I follow on Twitter. Ah, the drawbacks of our information society...

I tend to disagree with LottieMSmith's point that Twitter has more to offer libraries and their students than Facebook: my experience so far, though far less comprehensive and in-depth than hers, is that Twitter works extremely well for us librarians, however I fear that students have not embraced it with the same enthusiasm as us. Having promoted our upcoming Twitter and Facebook presence wherever possible and whenever appropriate to students and staff alike (why let a perfectly good opportunity to promote our Library services go by unattended?), I've noticed more of an interest at the mention of our Facebook page than Twitter. I am not losing hope that they'll see the benefit of it though, and we'll certainly refine our use of both tools to show off how well they complement each other rather than compete with each other. Time will tell if Twitter and Facebook will deliver on their promises for our library, or if our hopes will be cruelly (and very annoyingly) dashed.

I would be interested to know how well Twitter, and Facebook for that matter, will be received by our academics, or if its use will stay confined to the students and library world colleagues. I'll most definitely be watching this space and working hard to integrate Twitter and Facebook as important tools to communicate with the readership we support.