Twitter is a social networking platform that allows people to communicate with each other in 140 characters or less. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you wouldn’t believe how adept you become at expressing yourself with a limited amount of characters.
I’ve used Twitter for a little over 5 years now and, for me, it’s probably one of the easiest ways for me to stay in contact with my bloggy buddies, librarians and other information professionals. While I don’t always participate in the conversations that are taking place, I do follow the discussions and try to keep up with topics of interest to me. Currently, I’m following #NPRBlacksinTech, which is an NPR hosted event that has African American entrepreneurs, tech innovators, and scientists sharing a day in their life. A few years ago, I did this with my librarian friends in a project called “Library, Day in the Life“, hosted by Bobbi at Librarian by Day. This is a fun way to share, gather ideas, create dialogue, and learn about professions aside from one’s own. And, as a librarian, I feel it’s part of my responsibility to my students to know who the emerging leaders in technology are and what they’re doing.
Twitter has a place in libraries, in research, in education, and in our day~to~day lives. Whenever I’m helping students find research topics, especially ones that have a little controversy to them, I tell them to look at Twitter and check out the hashtags. Even if they don’t use direct quotes, they can usually get pointed in the direction of some really useful information. Don’t worry, I also teach them to evaluate and consider the source of the tweets. But for getting a rough idea of how people feel about a topic, you can’t beat Twitter.
There are lots of people offering tips on how to use Twitter and the other mobile things I’ll be trying out, so I’ll only be sharing a few tips here and there. If you’d like more information, check out my board: In the Library ~ 23 Mobile Things.
Thing 2: Taking a photo with a mobile device
If you decide to join in, use the hashtag #23mobilethings on Twitter.
Are you on Twitter? Give me a yell, I’m @DaenelT.
