Microblogging and Lifestreaming in Libraries

Abstract

When I saw the title of this book, I had no idea what microblogging or lifestreaming were, so I decided to review it to find out. One word: Twitter—you are blogging in 140 characters. And lifestreaming is aggregating all your social media through one application. A foreword by the series editor gives a synopsis of the whole series, how it came about, and how the books in the series are structured. (There are also ten more books in the series, published in 2012.) There are also a couple of short paragraphs about how these two applications can benefit librarians. The author’s preface contains the basic premise of the book, which is What are you doing right now? She then briefly explains the microblogging and lifestreaming applications, the organization of the book, and the intended audience. The chapter 1 introduction gives a more detailed explanation of microblogging and lifestreaming and a discussion of the most popular services of both applications. In this chapter and the book, Twitter is microblogging and gets the most “press.” As for lifestreaming, FriendFeed gets the most attention, but the one I have heard of is Tumblr. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the basics of planning and implementation: the whos, whats, whys, and hows you look at any time you want to start a new service. A tip: get administration on board before you begin, and sign them up for accounts if they do not already have them, if you can. The author also gives instructions on how to set up accounts with Twitter, FriendFeed, and Tumblr. There is a really helpful list of FriendFeed import services. Chapter 3’s good point is that to begin a conversation with your users, build an online community and do not become just a broadcaster. A section in chapter 3 is about the Twitter hashtag and how to use it. Chapter 4 gives instructions and suggestions on marketing and branding your social media presence and including your social media presence in the library marketing strategy. One really good point: be careful that you are not seen as a spammer! Chapter 5 goes over best practices, such as understanding copyright, blocking spam from the accounts, setting up and managing multiple accounts, and making sure to comment and post. There is a list of lingo and Twitter hashtags. Chapter 6 looks at measuring your success. You want to look at growth of followers, of course, but also reuse of information and whether or not your followers join in your conversations or just show up on the site once in a while. Ways to get the various statistics from the services are explained, and how and whether to use other providers to gather statistics is also talked about. There is a list of suggested readings, both web-based and print (and yes, there is a Twitter for Dummies!), and a spare index. Besides the ones already mentioned, the book has lists and sidebars throughout, and most of them are very helpful. I admit that I have never been interested in using social media and have not given its whys and wherefores much thought. So when reading the book, I quickly noticed and was surprised by the fact that many of the same things used to evaluate library services were used to evaluate these social media applications. But because the author is a librarian, it should not be so surprising. After all, what is social media but another way of getting information to whoever wants it when they want it. Another surprise for me was that I can see the value to libraries if they have a person or two on the staff who are willing and able to handle the commitment. This book, and the other books in the series, has a wiki that goes along with the book, which is an interesting way to keep the book current. Ironically, the uniform resource locator (URL) that was in the book no longer seems to work, but I found http://techset.wikifoundry.com after an Internet search. (I emailed the series editor, but as of this writing, I have not heard from her.) The book is a little pricey, but I think it might be because of the wiki. Although some of it is a little obvious, it is a fine primer to get you started if you would like to begin using microblogging and lifestreaming in your library.