I don’t think of myself as a social media expert. In fact, I kind of have a love hate relationship with social media. I love it for all the things it has taught me, but I also hate it for all the things it has made me aware of {I won’t be too specific here, but SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE?!}. I don’t hop on the trends because I lack rhythm and I overthink everything — is the lighting OK, is the video too hazy, what is that weird background noise, etc. Still, I’m primarily responsible for the social media accounts for our college.
My responsibilities consist of taking pictures, posting information about the college, celebrating our students, and sharing whatever is asked of me. I also share information about the library and the services and resources that are available for our students, staff, and faculty. And, despite what I said up above, I do enjoy this part of my job because it gives me the opportunity to interact with our students in ways that are far removed from the library, yet raises awareness about the library.
WHAT IS LISTEN WITH LOUIS
Our college library is part of a consortium of public and private academic libraries across the state of Louisiana. This consortium is called LOUIS. LOUIS provides our libraries with access to electronic resources, technical support for those resources, professional development, and so much more {honest to goodness, the LOUIS team is the best library support team ever}. As part of the professional development roster, LOUIS produces a podcast called Listen with LOUIS, which is hosted by the incomparable Dr. Rob Stephens. This podcast provides librarians with the opportunity to share their expertise with other librarians within the consortium. The topics covered range from collecting statistics to promoting library displays to discussing the complicated relationship academics have with AI and everything in between.
I’ve wanted to be a guest on Listen with LOUIS since the first podcast, but I wasn’t sure what I’d talk about. Sometimes my imposter syndrome is overwhelming and I think, despite my over 20 years in the profession, that I don’t have the level of knowledge or expertise that my colleagues have. I know this isn’t true. Still, I was surprised when Rob invited me to be a guest on the podcast. Specifically, he invited me to be one of three guests on the last episode of the year to talk about social media and libraries.
Of course, I leaped at the opportunity because, without even knowing it, Rob provided me with the chance to cross two things off my “Want to Experience List”:
- Presenting to librarians
- Being a guest contributor on a podcast
I enjoy podcasts. I listen to a variety of podcasts on wide ranging subjects while I’m at work or when I’m traveling between campuses. One of the things I enjoy about podcasts is the relaxed environment they provide for sharing information. The other is that anyone can do it – guest or host – so it provides regular people like me with an opportunity to share and talk about the things we enjoy.
WHO WAS WITH ME
I shared the mic with Iriana, who is the Outreach Librarian at Loyola University New Orleans, and Courtney, who is the InterLibrary Loan/Reference & Copyright Librarian at Delgado Community College. Both librarians are doing exceptional work for their respective libraries. Seriously, you can hear the excitement in their voices when they talk about outreach and how they create their campaigns.
Being on Listen with LOUIS was everything I thought it’d be. I’ve presented before {and, of course, I’ve taught classes}, but I still get nervous each and every time. With the podcast, there wasn’t the performance anxiety that comes with being on camera or standing in front of group, so the delivery was much more natural. And having two other librarians and a host to take the pressure off made the experience so much more pleasurable.
Click below if you’d like to listen…
I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get the chance to be a guest on a podcast again, but I’m very happy that my first time was on this podcast and with people I respect and admire.
Random Recording Information
I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a podcast before or not, but I thought I’d share a bit about the recording process too, as this was very new to me. After we all agreed to be guests on the show, Rob sent us a Zoom link, so we were actually seeing each other as we were recording from our respective offices. I know some podcasts show the videos either live or as replays, Rob doesn’t do that and I’m oh so thankful for that. I realized while watching myself, that I talk with my hands A LOT. Y’all would’ve gotten dizzy. LOL Anyway, before we started, Rob gave us a cue and we sat in silence for about 30 seconds before Rob gave the show intro and introduced the topic. This dead air provided time for any areas of concern {such as recording glitches, weird noises, etc.} to be taken care of. Being able to see each other during the recording process made the whole situation feel more conversational. Additionally, it made it easier to avoid crosstalk. At one point, you can tell that I forgot that the audience wasn’t going to see the recording because I started talking about my cell phone while holding it up. *doh*
Anyway, I’m not sure if all podcasts are recorded this way, but it certainly made things a lot less intimidating. And Rob, Iriana, and Courtney made it fun and so much less intimidating.
THANK YOU
Thank you for stopping by my blog. I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new. If you like what you read, please consider sharing this post on Facebook or Pinterest. If you’re on Instagram, I’d love for you to give me a follow. I’ve also dipped my toes into the world of TikTok but don’t expect to see any dance moves from me.
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Until next time,
LET’S CONNECT
