Thing 6: Online Networks

I think that LinkedIn and Facebook are the most useful sites.  Linkedin is a place for future employees. It could be a good place to work on collaboration as well.  I can see the value for LinkedIn for the business community and I will be exploring it deeper with librarian groups in the near future.

Facebook is a way connect with friends and family.  I use Facebook for those reasons, but I also use it to connect with my High School quiz bowl team, my Fellowship of Christian Athletes group (I have a group page with info about upcoming events and what happens at meetings in case they can’t make a scheduled meeting), and I am revamping a group for Nebraska School Library Media Specialists, made up mainly of students I went to Graduate School with at Nebraska-Omaha, we share ideas, post questions and can talk about current events.  This group has been inactive for a few years now and I want to get it back up running soon.

I looked into LISNPN and have created an account. I’m working through my profile and I hope I can find people that I can network with. I’m not sure exactly how I am going to use it yet, but I always looking for new ideas for the libraries I work in.

I was interested in the Librarians as Teachers site when I read about it, but was disappointed in the lack of participation and keeping things updated.  I have decided not to join at this point, but will be looking into the tabs more closely to see if there is something I can pull from it.
I haven’t looked at CLIP to this point and by the description it probably won’t be something that I pursue, being form the US.

With the comment of Reid Hoffman, I’m leaning towards agreeing with him and how LinkedIn is set up.  I prefer Facebook, because I’m not sure how many of my friends know about LinkedIn, whereas most of them are aware or have a Facebook account.  I will continue to use both, but right now in my opinion FB gets the thumbs up from me.

Google+ is something I think our school district would be interested in. We use Google for our e-mail, A majority of what I type up is done in Google Docs, like my pre-posts for this project, our teachers have created sites, they upload video to share with parents at the 7-12 level, and with the other apps available I’m sure our technology director has begun planning an integration of some sorts once the program officially goes live to the public.  There’s always room for new ideas like Google+, because our society is always adapting to new technologies on a daily basis. Everyone has heard how students are wired differently in their brain than we are, it is second nature to them, while we struggle to understand some of the basic concepts.  I have said before, as librarians, we need to stay ahead of the curve if we are going to be of service to the public and communities, because when we fall behind, we are doing a disservice to the general public.