Social Media and professional updating

Social Media has become one of the hot topics in Library and Information Science (LIS) recently. I am glad part of my Personal Professional Development Plan (PPDP) is about this exciting subject which might shape the future of LIS. Reading relevant books, articles and following 23 for professional development all were definitely informative but attending Philip Bradley speech was a fantastic experience. I went to Sheffield to listen to the guru of Library2.0 whom I follow his blog curiously. I was looking forward to meeting the man who is very influential in Library and information science.

The location was Hallam University LRC. Not only it was easily accessible but also huge and very contemporary compared to our LRC. The event started with an hour of informal chat before the actual talk which CILIP members could share their points easily with Philip Bradley.

The event was very well organised by SINTO. First we listened to “I am a believer“ song in the memory of the Monkees. Then Philip Bradley started talking about why librarians need to use social media. When people talk about Web2.0, they think about Face book, twitter, and Linkedin whereas this subject covers lots of other activities in virtual world. He insisted “ask question anytime, no question is silly. I won’t use abbreviation or jargon. Feel free to tweet, blog, take photo or video”. Then he continued about importance of librarians’ involvement in Web2.0 in order to gain enormous potential in interacting with users in the virtual space. He believes some people who don’t understand Web2.0 or worry about their authority are not keen in social media. However we should consider how library2.0 makes our job easier and saves time. In future, information power moves from the big organisations to the individuals. He added “what we are interested in is information and the container does not matter. Things never come back to the past, changes never stop. Therefore we need to adapt ourselves to new forms of information. If something is a good idea it would stay otherwise, better idea will replace.”

Then we had comparison between the old way and new way of doing things in internet. Pre-social Media era was complicated, computer based, and control was through websites. Now or in near future it would be simple (Tools exist to create pages and resources for you), Cloud based (Save directly onto internet servers, without even realising it), Browser based (load the software when you need it) etc.. There is no doubt books, magazines and printed stuff shrinks in number and we move on to screen reader generation.

He mentioned Google is not the best place for search because it is designed based on the click times. Google doesn’t recognise good or bad source of information. For better search results than those offered by Google, try search engines like DuckDuckGo, Bing, Blekko, and Sperse. Social media can be used as a search engine as well.

Then we had 15 minutes break; a chance to talk with others about the subject. I noticed other peers also try to understand the concept better for themselves and update their affiliations to these changes.

After the break, he went through Google+, Google reader, Facebook, Facebook Library pages, Linkedin, Twitter, social bookmaking, Diigo, Pinterest, Zite, XYDO, News.medaily digest, Scoop.it, Netvibes, WIKIS, Bookclubs using goodreads, Trailfire, Pearltrees, Trailmeme, Jogtheweb, Live Binders, Quora, Flicker, Library thing, Ask a librarian, etc…

Finally, he ended up his presentation with a telling statement: “if we don’t involve (social media), we will die.”

By the time I left Sheffield, my vision about future of information was changed completely. I feel more determined about improving my involvement in social Media.