Thing 12: Social Networking Reflection

I discovered Social Networking on a personal level with Facebook when my children went to University, as a way of keeping up with what they were doing. Once our school was going through a merger I joined 'Linked In' as a way of job seeking and developing my CV. Since then I've joined the SLN a Yahoo group and Twitter for professional development. CPD23 didn't necessarily help me go further with these, but highlighted aspects such as user groups that have helped. I do believe the social networking can help sole Librarians with a sense of community and support in a very real way. Once sphere I have noted is that social netowrking has enabled a much faster response to events that affect the profession eg. petitions on library closures, the recent remarks about copyright etc. I have recently joined the Facebook Group on the 'Mass Lobby for School Libraries', having seen the success of the use of social networking in lobbying against Public Library Closures last year. I firmly believe that Social networking can be a very powerful tool for political change in our profession. In addition I have set up a Facebook Group for our staff book club to keep in touch and pass comment on what they're reading. SN help is instantly at hand point the direction to documents and statements that make a difference to understanding of problems and possible solutions. SN gives librarians a voice that they never had before. However, I believe that face to face contact is also essential for both community feeling and professional development and shouldn't be pushed to the sidelines in a wave to hop onto the next big thing. We need to have both. After all, we can all see the demise of MySpace. Who knows how long each of these services will last? Librarians are a great breed adapting to change, and these days it seems the only way to survive. So yes, SN leads to better & faster communication, leads to collaborative working, build an online community and gives easy access to other areas of our profession. In a few years time we'll wonder how we ever did without it!