Since this blog is a component of a course I am doing on social media, it only seems fitting that the first required post is about me and my social media use.
About Me
My name is Alina and I am a full-time MLIS student at UBC. I have lived in the Lower Mainland my entire life (mostly in Vancouver, although I have now settled in Richmond). I am a huge fan of all things related to libraries (of course!) and cats (I have three!).
Outside of school, I work part-time as a Research Assistant at UBC, volunteer at an elementary school library one day a week, and I am also doing some volunteer work at a women’s centre library on the North Shore. I am part of the UBC Library Student Advisory Committee, the BCLA Continuing Education Committee, the Young Readers’ Choice Awards Society of BC, and I am a section editor for the BCLA Browser. I am not entirely sure what kind of library I would like to work in once I graduate because I am drawn to so many different kinds of librarianship, so I am trying to get as much professional experience as possible in order to decide what I would like to do professionally. I have the feeling that the answer to that question may be a bit of everything, but I guess we shall see!
I am half-way through my MLIS, and I’ve come to the point where there’s so many courses I want to take before I graduate and only so much time left in which to take them. This leads to some tough decisions each semester as I invariably feel that my time is running out to learn about all sorts of interesting facets of librarianship before I enter the field. This course on social media won out over many other equally interesting course options because I feel that the use of social media can be an important way to connect with library patrons, or maybe even reach new patrons. While many people sort of blindly jump into the world of social media within their respective professions, I feel that I want to be a bit more prepared if and when social media becomes a part of my job description. I want to find out what works and what doesn’t, and I want to gain some proficiency with social media before it becomes something I am expected to be proficient at.
Social Media Past
I would say I have “dabbled” in quite a bit of social media, so it might be surprising that my current social media use is sparse at best. Myspace and Livejournal were two of the platforms that I first remember using on a daily (sometimes hourly!) basis. Although the switch from Myspace over to Facebook started off as slow and uncomfortable, eventually I became just as addicted to Facebook as I had been to its predecessor. I used Facebook purely to communicate with friends (rather than a way to gain professional contacts) and I really enjoyed the way it gave you a sort of snapshot of someone’s life, from their “Likes” and relationship status down to their day-to-day activities. I also briefly had a Tumblr account that I regularly posted from, although that did not last long.
Over the summer I was a volunteer for the Public Library InterLINK’s TeenRC, which is an online reading club for teens in BC. As a volunteer, I had to be responsible for one of the TeenRC’s social media accounts, so I had the very interesting experience of using Facebook to engage with TeenRC participants. Although the account had very few followers, I still feel I learned a lot from the experience, but it also gave me insight into how much I didn’t know.
Social Media Present
Currently, I have an active LinkedIn profile that is both a requirement for my job (prospect research) and something I use as a ‘professional’ social media account (i.e. one that I hope my potential employers will pay more attention to rather than my old Facebook or Myspace accounts!). I no longer use Facebook or Tumblr, and I have never had an Instagram, Twitter, or flickr account. However, I have recently decided to make a Twitter account for professional development purposes and because, in the spirit of this course, I would like to branch out and explore more social media platforms.
If you managed to make it here to the end, thank you for reading my introduction post! I have already checked out the course discussion forum and am happy to recognize some familiar faces and see some new people who I am looking forward to meeting. I am excited to share ideas and work with everyone this semester!