INF206 – Social Networking for Information Professionals is a selective subject for Bachelor of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. It is an interesting subject as we learnt the theory of (the power of) online social media platforms and at the same time we also explored and practiced social networking in information professionals or a libraries setting to promote library services (Gerts, 2020). My experience in studying in this subject, it is quite challenging but also interesting as I am not a regular user of social media and I did not have a great deal of knowledge about this. I do not really spend my time to socially connect with online community as I am working full time, studying, and run a family business, then I normally spend my spare time for family and personal life.
I recently used WhatsApp on a regular basis just to send messages and video call with family and friends overseas during this challenging time (during the Covid19 pandemic), where social connection and emotional support is really important, especially in the time when travel over geographical borders are a really difficult even as it is nearly impossible. I can reflect this situation in library setting where the social media presence of a library is more important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic and during disasters as the library online platforms provides support and information to its surrounding community. Based on explanation from Alajmi & Albudaiwi (2020), during COVID-19 public libraries have continued to serve the community in creative ways by providing a traditional role and non-traditional roles.
- Traditional roles: institutional supporters, collection managers, information disseminators, internal planners, community supporters, government partners, educators and trainers, and information community builders
- Non-traditional roles: provides support in economic recovery and emotional healing for communities in the challenging and stressful times during the pandemic and disasters such as creating a virtual community living room via social media platforms that enable libraries to connect and channel support within community.
I understand the importance/need for social networking for Information Professionals as in today’s multi dimension public space where people connect/interact online and offline and social media platforms are used as an additional tool to reach an audience beyond physical boundaries and to form an online community/village with the principal that offline connections are still a priority over online connection (Gruzd, Wellman, & Takhteyev, as cited in Gruzd, 2017, p. 650). I also realised that social networking is not to just promote library services or reach library clients online, we can also connect with other libraries, relevant organisations for professional development and to follow the library and technological trends such as following the trend watchers social media accounts/channels such as ALA (American Library Association) or ALIA (Australian Library & Information Association) and as the library can receive updates about the emerging technology trends in library and information industry. In addition to that, I also gain more perspective on how important it is to connect with Trend Watchers to keep yourself updated with new trends in technology and innovation, as King (2018) suggested that it is important to follow trend watchers, especially in trends that effect library and information industry as libraries can gain knowledge in emerging trends and learn the processes from others in the industry and assist in improvement and avoid duplication. Furthermore, Xu (as cited in Alajmi & Albudaiwi, 2020, p. 2) mentioned that based on a comparative study of eight Chinese and non-Chinese public libraries, libraries can also utilise flexible online social media platforms such as Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, and interactive games for brand and service marketing purposes to build a library public image , promoting library culture, to disseminate news announcements and also to promote library services such as themed activities, information about library services, online educational or training materials, academic literature and videos, business counselling etc.
Over this session 3 of 2020, I have learnt more about the social media efficacy, especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a blog creation. The more I learnt about social media the more I found myself diving into it and busy exploring. Other things that I found it useful, I had the opportunity to analyse other Libraries social media presence and gain insights about the content/posts. My experience using these 4 social media platforms mentioned above are outlined below:
- Facebook:
The lecturer and the students who are enrolled in this subject for session 3 of 2020 regularly communicate/interact in a closed Facebook group where we can discuss and share anything or resources that focus on library and information professionals. I found that it is really useful as we also learn and share the concept, theory, the tips on how to use Facebook social media platform itself, andI get the chance to practise the theory at the same time.
I created my Twitter account several years ago, but did not tweet anything on it, I did not follow or have followers. I started to follow my own lecturers Twitter account, then other Trend Watchers social media accounts such as ALIA, UNESCO, IFLA, NLA, etc. I also had opportunity to browse and explore their tweets and retweets, I found myself immersed in these tweets of information. There is really useful information around Library and information aspect and other topics of interests. So I started to retweet these useful pieces of information and I also clicked “Like” on the post that I found really useful and attracted my interest.
I created an Instagram account as well but did not post anything on it. I started to post a picture as part of a class activity of subject INF206. I am still a bit hesitant to post more pictures publicly, in this case, it might be a good idea to set up my Instagram account privately and only share it with certain people. But in a library setting, having an online presence via Instagram that can be shared with public is really useful as the library can post images/pictures, video about library services, library collection, STEAM activities, craft and cooking, book reviews, new books, author’s talks, information about library resources, educational resources, library events, various announcements and news. Instagram also has an ability to do a live stream video that can facilitate educational/training activities.
- Blog
As part of this study in subject INF206, all the students are required to create a blog with regular postings that reflect the study and analysis of course materials/reading. Based on my experience, posting a regular blog post is quite challenging, especially as you also need to comment on other student’s blog. But that is the idea about blogging, in order to keep yourself in touch/engaged with your audience, you need to post regularly on your blog, and keep yourself updated by reading and follow other people/organisation’s blog that has relevant interests. I also gained benefits by reading course materials/resources which has helped to expand my knowledge and put it in writing as a blog post.
There are many advantages of the use of social media for libraries. Apart from its function as a channel to reach library audience online on mobile platform, social media also can be used within the organisation/library such as a staff and volunteer communication/discussion tool, they can also hold a virtual meeting. Social media also, can be used for personal development that is beneficial for organisations/libraries to develop the skills of their staff or their volunteers. Based on findings of the survey on the use of social networking sites (SNSs), the responses of 200 academic librarians in Nigeria suggested that SNSs provides a place for knowledge sharing or as a source of educational information in librarianship or professional development (Tella et al., as cited in Williams, 2020, p. 139).
Today, many people spend a lot of their time online, especially on social media, and it comes with some negative consequences, as it is easier for people to share disinformation when they do not check the credibility of the sources and do not check the facts whether it is false or not (DCMSC of the House of Commons, as cited in Iosifidis & Nicoli, 2020, p. 65). These people are lured to share disinformation that has been posted by the culprit for their own benefits and they intentionally make the information in such a way that can attract/influence people emotionally and eventually motivate them to share it (D’Ancona, as cited in Iosifidis & Nicoli, 2020, p. 65). There is also a concern that with the ease of use of technology in digital images modification/manipulation, there will be more fake images circulating online with the intention to spread socio-political influence over global online community (Shen et al., 2019). In another words, social media platforms are used as a propaganda tool to accelerate the sporadic spread of disinformation to influence and divide people perceptions in targeted community (Iosifidis & Nicoli, 2020). If we are not careful, we can be the person who believes disinformation or misleading information, that is why we need to be critical in evaluating the credibility of the source of information, and ask questions such as: Do they have an appropriate level of expertise? What is the reputation of the publisher? Does the individual/organisation have an invested interest?. In this situation, digital and information literacy will come into play, as they equip us to be able to analyse/evaluate information, and spot the fake news on the internet and social media platforms effectively (Johnston, 2018). Otherwise, the situation can be seriously bad as an example, according Johnston mentioned that 34% of teachers that participate in NASUWT poll of teachers in United Kingdom found that students had referred to fake information to complete their homework or assignments (Johnston, 2018). This situation is really concerning, we have a right to access information that can be trusted and authoritative, and as a global community, everyone has to take part by increasing digital and information literacy, the involvement and cooperation between governments, regulators, think tank institutions, academic, and technology companies are needed to regulate and manage online space to reduce disinformation (Iosifidis & Nicoli, 2020).
Overall, my experience with the Online Learning Journal (OLJ) activity was quite an enjoyable process of creating and designing a blog at CSU Thinkspace. It is just like setting up a personal website using the provided template, which I modified to suit my preferences and to make it look as professional as possible. I found myself busy exploring the blog tools and their function. I tried to post on my blog regularly, respond to comments on my blog posts and I also tried to comment on other students blog posts. This activity required me to do regular readings, exercise critical thinking, and then write my thoughts for an online audience with the hope that I could share my thoughts and invite comments/discussion from the audience. I know I am not really good at it but at least it kept me practising and at the same time I also learnt social networking in a professional setting. Interestingly, my first blog post about article “Do I look like my selfie?”: Filters and the digital-forensic gaze’, written by Lavrence & Cambre (2020) have attracted some comments from other students. My thoughts are:
- It is because the topic of the article which discussed gender based perspectives on the use of selfie filter is really interesting.
- The topic of the article is a common issue that the general audience is familiar with.
- I also think the title of the article discussed is really inviting, as this was the reason why I chose this article in the first place. That also made me think, is the attention grabbing headline important to attract peoples attention?. Harris, Stevenson & Joyner (2015) suggested that the titles, images and content with emotional and evocative motivation, or provocative images and languages can potentially attract reader’s attention.
Word count: 1979
References
Alajmi, B. M., & Albudaiwi, D. (2020). Response to COVID-19 pandemic: Where do public libraries stand?. Public Library Quarterly, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2020.1827618
AlAwadhi, S. & Al-Daihani ?(2019). Marketing academic library information services using social media. Library Management, 40(3/4), 228-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-12-2017-0132
Gerts, C. (2020). Social Networking for Information Professionals [Subject Outline]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/
Gruzd, A., Jacobson, J., Wellman, B., & Mai, P. H. (2017). Social media and society: Introduction to the special issue. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(7), 647-652. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217717567
Harris, G.K., Stevenson, C. & Joyner, H. (2015). Taking an attention‐grabbing “Headlines First!” approach to engage students in a lecture setting. Journal of Food Science Education, 14(4), 136-141. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4329.12068
Iosifidis, P., & Nicoli, N. (2019). The battle to end fake news: A qualitative content analysis of Facebook announcements on how it combats disinformation. International Communication Gazette, 82(1), 60-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048519880729
Johnston, N. (2018). Living in the post-truth world: Recent research and resources. InCite, 39(3/4), 26–27.
King, D. L. (2018). Trend watching: Who and how to follow. Library Technology Reports, 54(2), 14-23.
Lavrence, C., & Cambre, C. (2020). “Do i look like my selfie?”: Filters and the digital-forensic gaze. Social Media + Society , 6(4), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120955182
Shen, C., Kasra, M., Pan, W., Bassett, G. A., Malloch, Y., & O’Brien, J. F. (2018). Fake images: The effects of source, intermediary, and digital media literacy on contextual assessment of image credibility online. New Media & Society, 21(2), 438-463. https://doi.org/10.1117/1461444818799526.
Statista. (2020). Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2020, ranked by number of active users (in millions). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Williams, M. L. (2020). The adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in academic libraries: A comparative exploration. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52(1), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618788725