Can I trust that Tweet?

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Elizabeth Bush

This week Donald Trump retweeted a fake video, without realizing it was fake, to help his campaign for presidency. When told the video was fake, he “admitted that as long as it’s on the Internet, he feels absolutely no obligation to fact-check what he tweets to his 6.87 million followers.” (Novak, 2016). Upon hearing the news, I wasn’t very surprised. Everybody knows you can’t trust everything on the Internet. However, I was a little disconcerted that people in power don’t think about the validity of what they are putting up on Social Media sites.

Now this post is not a political rant or a discussion on US politics. Rather, I want to look at what librarians can do to ensure that information coming through the library is true and how to teach patrons to evaluate that information on Social Media.

9561080441_89902c6b29_mPhoto Credit: Skley. CC 2.0 License.

Most libraries today hold computer classes, such as Microsoft Word, intro to the Internet, etc., and, upon a little research, I discovered that the VPL has held an Introduction to Social Media class. However, I wonder to what extent they teach how to use Social Media. Do they only focus on the technical logistics – use @ for someone’s name, # for a topic – or do they go further and teach how to evaluate the information, how to fact check, etc.

Just yesterday, I helped my mom sign up for Twitter and taught her the basics. At first I just started with the simple how-to steps: This is how you use hashtags, this is how you search, this is how you add people, etc. Soon I found myself explaining the more intricacies of using Twitter: How to spot a different narrative from pairings of tags, how to see who is retweeting the tweet to determine how influential the tweet is, etc. A few hours later I got a text from her saying how glad she was that I taught her all of the more in-depth ways of evaluating and disseminating the information she was exploring. She wrote that, “I thought I was going to have a headache, but now I am finding some really cool stuff”.

This made me wonder how many people are taught how to understand the nature of the information being thrown at them on Social Media. Do they just sign up and wing it? As Librarians is it our job to educate our patrons or do we assume that those who care will figure it out themselves?

Novak, M. (2016, March 13). Trump Defends His Tweet of Fake ISIS Video: “All I Know Is What’s On The Internet” Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://factually.gizmodo.com/trump-defends-his-tweet-of-fake-isis-video-all-i-know-1764626302?utm_source=feedburner
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Using Social Media as a Team

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Elizabeth Bush

While reading literature on the use of Social Media in libraries, I have found that many articles deal with the individual librarian’s use/profile for promoting the library.¹ However, there is not a lot of discourse over a team approach to manage and curate the different Social Media accounts the library uses. I find this interesting as many of the professional I have talked to who work with library Social Media accounts are working in teams.

After hearing Michelle’s presentation last Tues., I started to think about what are the difficulties and challenges of not being the only person using a single profile. When it is just you uploading and creating content, it is easy to control the amount of content, the type of content, and the branding of the profile. However, in a team environment, it would be easy to send out mixed signals on branding, post similar content,  and over post or under post throughout the week.

For libraries who have Social Media teams, all of the team members have to mindful of many things. These are just a few that I’ve collected:

  1. Make sure not to over post/oversaturate on the site
  2. Make sure not to post information that is being covered by another staff member
  3. Stick to the Branding already decided on for the Library
  4. The content is best suited for the Social Media Site that you are assigned to

I was mulling this over when a David Lee King, a blogger I follow, wrote a blog – found here – about the guidelines they implemented in his library for Social Media Teams.

The following is from the blog post:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Created by David King.² Found at http://www.davidleeking.com/social-media-guidelines-for-staff/. Used under a CC License.

While these are not all of the guidelines for David’s library, I thought these were very interesting to consider as a professional. We all have experience maintaining our own Social Media accounts. Often, librarians think that, since they are adept at maintaining their own personal accounts, it will be easy to jump into a Social Media team. But as these guidelines suggest, there is a different mind frame and set of rules for working within a Social Media team.

I’m curious if anybody has had experience working in a team for a Social Media profile. If so, what were the challenges? What were the differences between handling a profile individually and within a team?

For those without experience, thoughts? Ideas for how to approach using Social Media as a team?

 

Resources

  1. Vassilakaki & Garoufallou. “Library Facebook practices for creating and promoting a professional profile.” Program 49.3 (2015): 343-359.
  2. King, David Lee. “Social Media Guidelines for Staff.” Web log post.Davidleeking.com. 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

 

Posted in Libraries, Social Media | 4 Comments

hitREcord: Social Media as Collaborative Productions

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Elizabeth Bush

This week a new social site was brought to my attention: hitREcord. Created by actor and producer Jordan Gordon-Levitt, it is an online collaborative production company. Instead of hiring professionals to create content like a traditional company, the producers of hitREcord allow anybody to upload, remix, and edit content on the website. The site is set up much like a regular Social Media site. Users create profiles, upload their own individual content, and can interact with the other users of the site.

The site works as such:

User Joe can set up a project; give it a name and short description about what the project is about. Joe then issues a challenge, either general or specific, for adding to the project. If Joe feels ambitious, he can issue more than one challenge in relation to his project. The challenges are searchable by every user on the site. Users who find the challenge intriguing can choose to accept it and upload their work into the project. Using comments and tags, the community as a whole helps to shape the project and how it is defined. Works that users consider good can be given a heart, much like Pinterest. Those with more hearts rise to the top of searches. The producers at hitRecord go through the popular projects on the website regularly to see if there is anything they want to formally produce. If a project is picked to be an official production, all of the contributors are paid by hitRecord.

One of the standout points about this site for me was the fact that once a user uploads their content anybody can download it and do whatever they want with it. There is no copyright on any of the material. If Joe uploads a short story about urban farming, I could download it and rewrite it to be about vegetarian vampires. Anything is fair game.

Does this help creativity? Or does it hinder original work?

Either way I feel like this type of social site is indicative of where our technological society is headed. If libraries can find a way to be present in these collaborative settings, it could open up the library to a new set of users.

So, my question for you is:

How can libraries could use this modal to foster collaborative works in their own communities?

 

For more information about hitRecord check out Joe’s introductory video:

https://youtu.be/76UJPnrBEa8

Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments

Social Media Fasting

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Elizabeth Bush

Lent is right around the corner. Every year one or more of my friends will “fast” from Social Media. Aka, for 40 days (plus Sundays) they will not use one or all of their Social Media accounts. As I watch my friends disappear from Facebook (and other places), I am always encouraged by someone in my church to do the same. While I can understand the desire to go back to the unplugged, “simpler” time, I find myself against the idea that Social Media is something to give up.

I have never heard of someone fasting from reading the newspaper, reading books, or talking to friends. Consumption of any other information source is considered integral to being a well-informed, well-rounded, mature individual. However, when it come to consuming information through SNS, it is deemed to be mindless and unintellectual, something damaging to your life. While there are times I do believe people should look up from their phones, I also believe that Social Media and the use of it is important for navigating today’s culture.

Personally, I find out about breaking news through Social Media. Often the news I consume through Social Media doesn’t even make it into the evening news or daily newspaper. Likewise, my daily conversations with friends that live far away from me occur through SNS apps. If I spend a couple of hours on Google+ with my friends, talking, playing games, and bragging about our lives through pictures, people ask me why I am not more productive with me life. If I spend the same amount of time talking to my friends on the phone, nobody tells me that I am wasting away my life. (well, maybe some would, but nobody has so far).

If having the NPR playing in your office, reading multiple newspapers during the day, and calling your friends during the week is considered to be mature and healthy lifestyle, than checking Twitter, seeing your friends posts on Facebook, and gathering information through Social Media should also be deemed as such.

“Fasting” from the information flow shouldn’t be our goal. Rather, we should challenge ourselves to use Social Media wisely to help us interact with others and be informed about current events.

Posted in Fasting, Social Media | 4 Comments

A Short Introduction as to Why this Blog Exists

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Elizabeth Bush

Hi! My name is Elizabeth Bush and I am currently in the second year of my MLIS degree. Learning about libraries and the future of libraries is a huge passion of mine. In the course of my study, I decided to look closely at the relation between Social Media tools and library services. Luckily for me, SLAIS was offering a class about that topic. To make a short story even shorter, this blog is a requirement of LIBR 559M. Strangely enough, it doesn’t feel like I am fulfilling a class requirement when creating this blog, but rather it feels as though I am finding a place to explore a topic I have been interested in for a while now.

I am originally from the State of Colorado in the USA. I have lived in Colorado, Utah, Japan, and Vancouver so far in my life and hope to live in many more countries and states. Because I alternate between living abroad and living in the States, Social Media has become integral to my life. I have accounts on many of the well-known Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, Pinterest) and accounts on some foreign sites as well (Kakaotalk, Weibo, WeChat, Line). Because it is difficult to call friends from other countries and meet up with them, I rely on Social Media to continue our friendship. I also use Social Media for information about new communities I am travelling to or living in, to discover new adventures to try, and to post about my life so that family back home can keep up with me. I check each site as a lurker daily and often actively participate on my favorite ones. Social Media is where I learn about breaking news, practice foreign language skills, hang out with my friends, learn professional tools, and get help navigating new cities.

Because Social Media has such a strong presence in my life, I am interested in its future and how to harness its power to help make libraries relevant in this era of technology. I am also just excited to have an official reason to explore two of my favorite pastimes together!

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