WebJunction

I was linked to this article from a facebook post (nice bit of social learning): Yes, Your Social Media Strategy Needs Design.

The author's (David Armano) orientation is toward business use of social media, but I think he identifies a broader challenge, which is that communication (or learning) from the social tools is too fractured, held together by "duct tape and bubble gum." Current social media usage is "a reactive fragmented approach that may achieve short-term results for marketing but usually ends up living in isolation."

Armano suggests that it's time to get more intentional with social media, so that the tools can actually "evolve the way we work, communicate, interact and collaborate at a core business level."

That would be moving the social learning continuum from one end of totally serendipitous to the other end of designed learning. What do you think?

lol. It's a sliding scale between serendipitous and designed.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I was also slow to "get" Twitter. It was the SLQOTD (Social Learning Question of the Day) stream that got me to see the value of connecting with people and ideas through Twitter. I'm still more of a consumer than a provider of 140-character pearls of knowledge.

A recent WJ webinar on Bringing Web 2.0 into Academic Libraries discussed strategies for connecting students and faculty more actively to the library. There are some good ideas there.

Please let us know what you do with your "nuggets." It would be great to build a knowledge base of implementation ideas in this group.

....Betha

Sorry I missed the program at ALA. As a library consortium advocate. I have seen time after time that the energy of the group can lead to positive changes for individuals and their libraries. I am happy to have this conversation about guiding and designing the process to enhance the process.
My experience so far is that face to face groups have had the most vigorous ideas, but I want to see how people have included the social media for getting more people included in the conversations.

One critical tool is the in-house discussion board. It allows issues to surface, be hashed out, and even be decided ... and contributors can point to useful information. It also allows people to contribute who work odd hours and has the great advantage of providing a record as to how a decision was made.

Ditto the wiki, leastways for departments like Reference or Cataloging where info needs updating (by several people) and can be sorted into easy categories.

Hi Betha,

Yes. It’s part of our intranet … we use Snitz Forums

We’ve been using a forum for close to three years. We currently have 2149 posts in 966 topics (with a lot of these being “one post” topics such as meeting reports or book reviews that may not have responses).

Stimulating adoption wasn’t particularly hard since 1) I’ve been a discussion board “host” since ’97 and 2) I’m the director. I made participation part of the department head goals. Also, I make sure that I’m there on a daily basis, either through encouraging, thanking, responding, contributing, or bringing in links to topics I think will be interesting.

Adoption has been good, though we still have a couple of hold-outs who are, I think, simply a bit freaked by technology in general. Youth Services staff members are pretty much “there” all the time and use the forum as a planning space. Adult Services is a bit spotty (but, then, they also have a small wiki for easy access to useful online resources and department procedures). Circ is surprisingly busy … circ staff report on books they’ve read. The Tech Services head contributes (and her staff contribute to that department’s “how to do things” wiki)

It wasn’t hard to point out the advantages of a discussion board since department heads have always had problems getting input or buy-in from the evening or weekend staff. This provides a way. Also, since we’re in both an automation consortium (CCS) and a regional library system (NSLS) there are many meetings which interest several staff members … putting meeting reports on the forum solved the reporting problem. Finally, this also lets us share book reviews … which library staff members enjoy reading!

There was no single “tipping point.” Youth Services is full of “early adopters” and now needs little more than the occasional appreciation on my part. Adult Services still gets more posting on my part … depending on the topic.

Heh. If they're friends and have Facebook accounts I'd *hope* they're connected outside the library. ;-)

They haven't been asking for more tools, though. They're extremely busy as it is. The internal forum can, of course, be "bloggish" at times.

By the way, we do now (as of a few weeks ago) have a library Facebook page: Lake Villa District Library. The fanbase is growing. We now have some of our teenage volunteers adding reviews of our programming ... which (I hope) may lead to their friends and family friending us.

I had an e-mail the other day from a student who wanted my opinion on "the next big thing" in library technology. I told her I didn't know ... but one can imagine a world where everyone has a Facebook-like page that has apps one can use to interact with the bank, the library. etc.

If you want to reserve a book, go to your page and fire up your "library app." If you have a fine, pay it by having your library app talk to your "credit car app." If you want a book, download it through your library app.

Etc.

A Brave New World? Maybe so.

It's a huge issue. Folks with smart phones know that the web is *always* there and, I think, grow to rely upon it. Leastways my 50-ish friend David does.

Me, not so much, but that's mostly because I need to put on my reading glasses. I suspect my next phone will have a small QWERTY keyboard insomuch as it's too late in the game to develop nimble thumbs.

Thanks for that, Betha. I was asked to write a chapter on "Internal Discussion Boards" and that will prove handy.

The thing is, discussions are *very* human ... and a million years of evolution where a dozen or so people are sitting around a campfire is not easily undone by 200 years of industrial revolution. Equality, in a discussion, is extremely important.

Yes, I am edging toward full mobile connectivity. I see the attraction but am currently still inhibited by costs.

Given the amount of time we all spend at work, I would like to see more organizations condone the use of social media tools on the job. There is a standard objection to them as being too distracting from the real work at hand, which has some validity. Consider this quote from facebook today: "[X] has a stack of work on his desk that is THIS BIG so he must get off Facebook for 5 minutes."

But now consider this quotation from a blog post on Six pixels of separation:
"If you take home one thing about Social Media and what it means to do business today, let it be this: it is a place to constantly learn, share and grow. It is organic, it is constant, and it is powerful."
(thanks to MLX tweet for the link)

It is overwhelming to think about all the rivers of connection that I could jump in to. It's enough to make me comatose. But the idea is not that we now have to know all about everything. The idea is to be immersed somewhere and to be participating and sharing.