So in case people hadn't already noticed I'm sure this weeks twitter related assignment made it very clear that librarians love them some twitter. I've been on twitter for some years now and have always had mixed feelings about it. This is partly due to the fact that I do not have a smart phone, and don't really see myself getting one anytime soon due to very prohibitive pricing on data plans.
What I don't like about twitter:
If you don't have a smart phone you have to access twitter on your computer and that's not really how twitter was made to be used. I've noticed that a lot of library and archives related conferences are big on using hash tags for communication throughout conference events, and this is totally a great idea, if you have a smart phone. If you don't have a smart phone and you're at a conference where you know there is going to be a lot of tweeting going on you're basically doomed to lug your laptop around the whole time, which is a total bummer. So in a why twitter pretty effectively excludes anyone who has chosen not to get a smart phone, or (as is the case for me) can't afford one. I find this very frustrating, but I realize that there isn't anything I can do about it.
What I do like about twitter:
As I said before I've been on twitter for a few years now, I started it quite a while ago simply out of curiosity, and then pretty much ignored my account until coming to SI. When I arrived at SI I started thinking about how I might effectively use twitter even without a smartphone, or tablet device. I decided to use it as a kind of news aggregator for my two areas of professional interest, libraries (specifically academic special collection libraries), and early modern scholarship (specifically Shakespeare).
Using twitter in this way has been useful to me. I can't check up to the minute news, but I can scan through my feed in the morning over coffee or in the evening when I'm sitting at home watching TV. I have found it to be a useful way to stay up to date on what is going on in the professional areas that I am interested in, find new articles, and even to interact with / ask questions of professionals who's work I'm interested in. I even contacted one of the professional librarians I follow on twitter to ask her for suggestions for blogs to follow for this class.
Finally I have also been using twitter a lot lately to follow a few library job posting sites, to get up to dates info on the latest jobs being posted in the field.
Conclusions:
Overall I guess I would have to conclude that I have found a useful way to use twitter, and it is the best way to get professional news on a variety of topics all in one place. However, I still think that when libraries and other professional organizations place a big focus on it for conferences or other events they should think long and hard about who they are excluding and what this means.
What I don't like about twitter:
If you don't have a smart phone you have to access twitter on your computer and that's not really how twitter was made to be used. I've noticed that a lot of library and archives related conferences are big on using hash tags for communication throughout conference events, and this is totally a great idea, if you have a smart phone. If you don't have a smart phone and you're at a conference where you know there is going to be a lot of tweeting going on you're basically doomed to lug your laptop around the whole time, which is a total bummer. So in a why twitter pretty effectively excludes anyone who has chosen not to get a smart phone, or (as is the case for me) can't afford one. I find this very frustrating, but I realize that there isn't anything I can do about it.
What I do like about twitter:
As I said before I've been on twitter for a few years now, I started it quite a while ago simply out of curiosity, and then pretty much ignored my account until coming to SI. When I arrived at SI I started thinking about how I might effectively use twitter even without a smartphone, or tablet device. I decided to use it as a kind of news aggregator for my two areas of professional interest, libraries (specifically academic special collection libraries), and early modern scholarship (specifically Shakespeare).
Using twitter in this way has been useful to me. I can't check up to the minute news, but I can scan through my feed in the morning over coffee or in the evening when I'm sitting at home watching TV. I have found it to be a useful way to stay up to date on what is going on in the professional areas that I am interested in, find new articles, and even to interact with / ask questions of professionals who's work I'm interested in. I even contacted one of the professional librarians I follow on twitter to ask her for suggestions for blogs to follow for this class.
Finally I have also been using twitter a lot lately to follow a few library job posting sites, to get up to dates info on the latest jobs being posted in the field.
Conclusions:
Overall I guess I would have to conclude that I have found a useful way to use twitter, and it is the best way to get professional news on a variety of topics all in one place. However, I still think that when libraries and other professional organizations place a big focus on it for conferences or other events they should think long and hard about who they are excluding and what this means.
I feel you on the non-smart-phone user thing, and I think you expressed your concerns about who Twitter is leaving out really nicely. It sounds like you've made the best of Twitter and your personal technology to make it work for you, as a news aggregator. I like that idea a lot, especially since I'm in a similar situation phone-wise.
ReplyDelete"Using twitter in this way has been useful to me. I can't check up to the minute news, but I can scan through my feed in the morning over coffee or in the evening when I'm sitting at home watching TV."
ReplyDeleteThis is how I use it, too. And it's not at the top of my "must-read" pile. If I am on deadline or have a bunch of other projects going on, it's what I'll skip.