Social Media and Agility

Steven L. MacCall, PhD, School of Library & Information Studies, University of Alabama

Military Libraries Workshop, Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama

December 11, 2013

Slides - http://www.slideshare.net/smaccall/social-mediause-maccallpptforslamlahuntsville

Much of Dr. MacCall’s presentation used examples from his teaching experience and his requirements that his students make use of social media.

Technical Agility – as in technology

Use tools – whether or not they are computerized.  Not all of the tools that we use as librarians are computerized.  Many are trusted resources that we know will work

Heidegger wrote of the hammer and the hand/arm as a unit.  If you think too much about how to use the hammer – that’s when problems start.

There is a transparency to tool use

Agility – ability to change rapidly in response to customer needs and market forces.  Adaptability, flexibility, responsiveness – OED

Technical agility in social communications: what are the barriers?

Personal technical agility barriers:

• Do we view people who use Twitter as a geek or nerd?  Or are they curious or industrious?
• Is social media second nature to you?
• Know your personality and use what works for you – or use it to work for you.

Professional technical agility barriers can be subdivided:

• Technical services – using computers to solve problems and enhance services
• Public services – document delivery and similar services

Overcoming barriers:

·         Require adoption

o   Make the case by using problem-solving

o   Provide scenarios for using social media

·         Encourage agility

o   Overcoming time challenges

o   Deploy what you know to new contexts

o   Tools come and go

Monitor various communications channels (listservs, blogs, Twitter, Facebook)

• For professional development
• On behalf of clients

Interstitial computing:

• Tweeting, checking email etc. in our downtime – waiting in the checkout line
• Is this smart to do in a 24/7 world – or do we need to take breaks?

Customize your Twitter life:

• Follow a few key people and check the feed once per day or per week – scroll through the tweet history.  With only a few people it isn’t too hard to do.
• This doesn’t work if you are following 50 or more people.
• Learn to search on hash-tags for themes

Final thoughts:

·         Draw sustenance from the technical agility of your colleagues both current and from the past

·         Technology with a purpose:

o   Solve problems

o   Be more efficient

·         Consider the network of your fellow professionals

·         Document your professional social media activities:

o   Easier said than done

o   We need better tools!

Social media adoption is merely the next technical agility challenge.

Resources for Mobile Devices - Recap of SLA/DC Presentation

Context, Content, Contraptions – Resources for Mobile Devices

Paulette M. Hasier, PhD, Manager Research Services, Advanced Resource Technologies, Inc.

Last week the DC/SLA Chapter organized a great presentation on how the Research Services team worked with their IT folks to test, acquire and make available a variety of information resources on company-issued mobile devices.

The key is Context, Content and Contraptions:

Context:

Patrons want things to be simple:

• Easy search
• Single device
• One-stop shop

Patrons want services on better technologies using multiple devices in the workplace.

Content:

Public libraries are overwhelmed with demand – there are waiting lists for the ebook versions of latest best sellers. Corporate libraries are seeing increased demand for ebooks.

Contraptions:

The number of ebook readers doubled over the recent holiday season – 29% of adults now have some kind of e-reader and that number will only increase. At the end of 2011 smartphone sales surpassed PC sales.

Pitfalls & Solutions for adopting new technologies:

Goals:

• Make subscription resources mobile.
• Make news updates dynamic
• Maintain integrity of scientific data

Why is mobility important? Our patrons travel a lot for work – business trips, offsite meetings, testimony.

Rather than guess what the patrons needed – they conducted end-user interviews – not just surveys. They learned that their patrons wanted resources for the smartphone or a tablet – not laptops and not blackberrys.

Pitfall – Product primacy. Right now Apple rules the market so people are requesting those products – but will all the resources run on Apple products? One company got a top-down order for resources for the iPad with no prior discussion or consideration of what content was available for the device.

Other challenges:

• WiFi vs. 3G service – building wasn’t configured for WiFi – so 3G is the solution.
• authentication method – IP doesn’t work on mobile devices so in the end they went with username and password. Company IT is still working on some kind of pass-through connection that is seamless like IP authentication.
• Monitoring agency-specific news RSS feeds not working for mobile – solution – using social media to bridge the need for the short term.

Some lessons learned:

Don’t assume you know/understand what the users’ needs are.

Patrons want things to be simple – but they want the content that they want/need.

Science staff doesn’t want humanities content.

Patrons were happiest with an A-to-Z list of journals they could select from.

There was an expectation of more content being available – so provide information about what is and is not available.

If you are tied to a product, i.e. iPhone or iPad, aim to use applications and resources that are optimized for those products.

Dr. Hasier and her staff will give the following presentations:

Better Websites: Agile, Teens & Duct Tape! Computers in Libraries, Washington, D.C. - March 22, 2012

Impact of Technical Standards on Vocabulary & Metadata Projects - SLA Annual, Chicago - July 18, 2012

Gov on the Go: Mobile Apps - SLA Annual, Chicago - July 18, 2012