CPL 2.0: Twitter

I've used Twitter for about three years now. I moved back to Calgary after finishing university, and almost all of my university friends joined the site. I found it really nice to join the site and get daily updates from my friends, who I'd moved away from. It is very similar to what Facebook's new news feed, but without the photos and videos and annoying Farmville/Pirate adventure/whatever updates.

Now, I still tweet from my personal account (http://twitter.com/kalo3,) and I also tweet for the library that I work at (http://twitter.com/fishcreeklib.) My personal account is protected so that I need to approve your account in order for you to see my tweets and get them in your list. The library's account is not protected, so anyone can follow me, and it's been interesting to see the kind of account that has started to follow me. Some of them are local people or organizations in the area, a few of them are library twitter pages, and a few of them are randoms who have started following me because they're interested in something I'm tweeting about.

So here is this week's question:

• What kind of information is being posted by the library accounts above? What kind of information should libraries post?

CPL's accounts are posting a real variety of information: information about contests, big events, library programs, volunteer opportunities, blog entries and other information from the CPL homepage, etc. And this is exactly the kind of information that we should be posting about. I also tweet from time to time about changes in the physical Fish Creek library itself - if we're moving some collections, or have new displays, and our big game boards. I try to tweet at least three times a day, to stay current and relevant (or re-tweet from another CPL twitter accounts.) If you aren't active about the account, and only have one tweet or so each week, it's not enough to build up your followers, or have them want to keep following your account.

I've also re-tweeted a few of KonaDawg's tweets. (http://twitter.com/KonaDawg.) Kona is one of the dogs that comes to Fish Creek's Story Pals program to help reluctant youth readers. Lee, who is Kona's owner, runs his twitter account for him, as Kona probably hasn't mastered typing quite yet, even though he's great to read to ;)

CPL 2.0 Social Networking

This week's assignment is all about social networking. I've been a user of a few different social networking sites for quite a while now. I had a Friendster account in high school, migrated to Myspace in college and at some point in University switched to Facebook. Then, after moving back to Calgary after finishing University, the friends that I left behind convinced me to join Twitter. I currently use Twitter primarily, and I love that it keeps me up to date with friends who live in different parts of the country. I think we'll explore Twitter a bit more in a few weeks, so I won't go in to any more detail about it.

On to this week's question:

• For you, is Facebook useful or a time-waster?

For me, it is both of these things. I use Facebook more than I'd like. I should change the e-mail notifications that I get, so that I receive less. I tend to log in to the site after I've received a notification about something (an event invite, comment, or message.) I really don't need to be checking it more than once a week, and when I check it I tend to look over my whole news feed, which is a huge time-waster. Curiousity kills Katie's time... if a friend posts photos of something, I will look at them.

But Facebook can also be really useful, and it's my only social tie to a quite a number of people. I recently deleted a number of "friends" (I have 200 or so Facebook "friends") who I decided I wouldn't recognise if I saw them on the street, but the majority of my friends are people that I care about and Facebook is a great way of staying in contact with them.

Fish Creek Twitter

http://twitter.com/fishcreeklib

I post Twitter updates on behalf of the Fish Creek branch of the Calgary Public Library. If you are interested in updates on free library programs, fun events and new features* in the library be sure to follow me!

*Like the giant Chess set and Snakes & Ladders games we have set up!