Week 12 Class Reflection

 "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"*      

                                                                    "Dorothy" in The Wizard of Oz

*First, an apology to the state of Kansas:

So, yes- maybe we shouldn't have tried to be humorous in selecting the title for our webinar (Rule #1 in distance programming: "Don't use regional humor").  We just thought the pop culture reference would outweigh the offense felt by Kansans (though I should have asked my friend from Kansas first).  Anyways, the point was to help rural librarians understand that they are not alone in their efforts to help their student patrons find information and resources necessary to help make college decisions.

On to the class reflection.

The discussion about Twitter opened my eyes to the many opportunities it offers.  I plan to use Twitter only for professional purposes, but I really like the idea of my future "organization" using Twitter to connect to its patrons.  I've seen lots of business do this (first through Facebook) and I have found the pitfalls of using Twitter as a marketing tool are:

• Bombarding your patrons
• Deciding what all followers need to know (maybe different @'s for different aspects of the organization for patrons to follow would solve this)
• Keeping up with it

The benefits of using Twitter are:

• Direct marketing
• Simplicity of use
• Free
• Easily broadcast to a large number of followers (if you have a large number of followers)

It all depends on how much YOU use it- and then how much your patrons respond to it.  Which is where social media management systems come in.  I am totally going to use HootsSuite to organize my Twitter feed.  I like how visually simple the interface is. My housemate also told me about Vizify.  Different than HootSuite, it's a social media management website that collects and organizes your social media "life" and represents it graphically- literally creating a virtual resume.  You have control of what social media sites it's collecting information from and you also have the power to edit the content of your profile.

I need to work on generating my professional learning network- maybe I will have a "virtual spring cleaning day" after graduation to get my virtual life in order.  I need to update all of my professional profiles and decide who I want to be mentored or informed by.  I think I might even create multiple PLN's considering job type, whether I know them or not, and the frequency in which I work with them.

It's all a lot to keep track of.

I've really enjoyed and been impressed with the webinars I have participated in this week.  For not having experience with Blackboard (and how complicated it is), I think we all did amazingly well.  I tuned in on webinars about providing services to homebound patrons, ideas for getting teenage boys interested in books, and understanding Creative Commons licensing.  They were very informative and I have ideas from all of them that I can use in my career.  Thanks for sharing everyone!