Thing 12 - Social Media

I have definitely started to use social media more due to my participation in CPD23; gaining more knowledge of this area is one reason why I decided to join in with the programme in the first place. Over the last few months I have engaged with Twitter to a greater extent. I’m now following more people and organisations, including library related people/organisations and CILIP. In this sense, I’ve found Twitter to be a great way of staying informed of current activities and news in my areas of interest, and also the local area in which I live. However, I still feel like I’m not actively engaging with Twitter as I don’t tend to join in with conversations.  Maybe now I’m following more people/organisations, there’ll be more scope to join in – I’ll certainly be trying to this over the next few months, and may well report back at a later time.
 

I think social media does help in building up networks. Social media is a good way to get to know people, particularly when it may otherwise be difficult due to geographical distances. I’ve found Facebook, for example, to be a good way of keeping in touch with the lovely people I met when undertaking the MA. I also think social media helps to connect staff working in smaller and/or specialist libraries, or those working alone/in small teams, with others in similar situations. From what I’ve seen so far, groups and networks created through social media provide a supportive environment within which library staff are able to interact.

I feel social media can help in terms of career development. Again, social media facilitates current awareness and enables the sharing of skills/knowledge. Moreover, social media, enables people to find out about job vacancies and events such as conferences, connects library workers with others at the same stage in their career, or enables them to learn from those who are more experienced and so on. I think increasing my knowledge of social media via this CPD 23 programme will be of value to my career in the long term, from knowing more and being able to pass this knowledge on to library users, to my own professional development. I have definitely been encouraged to explore social media as a result of CPD 23, and this is something I will continue with once I have (eventually!) completed the Things.