by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee
Positivity and Leadership through Tweet Chats
So a few months ago, Naomi announced that she would be starting #INALJchat. I did not really know what this would entail, as I never did a tweet chat before or spend much time on twitter. I was definitely interested in checking it out because I am also looking for new ways to get involved in librarianship, networking with librarians and to be educated by others in the field.
So I attended my first chat, but I got very overwhelmed with the number of tweets happening on at once from several participants. After the chat someone recommended I use Tweet Deck, another Twitter client that can handle the multiple tweets coming in at once. I fell in love with Tweet Deck. I love that I can organize how my tweets come in on the screen and that I can tweet from multiple twitter accounts at once.
With using Tweet Deck, I was able to have a better handle on the tweets and participate more and this made my #INALJchat experience so much better, I definitely wanted to get involved and I signed up to moderate a few chats of my own. My chats were successful, I definitely felt like I made an impression and learned from others. I continued to participate in the #INALJchat discussions each week because I have nothing but free time at 9 PM on Monday nights so I might as well make my time resourceful and chat with other librarians
In August, Naomi announced that she wanted to fill 4 month positions for @INALJchat moderators to keep the chat going. I definitely was interested as I am already participating each week already so I definitely had the time and passion to moderate the chats. So now each week, I pick the topics for the chats based on an INALJ blog, create the 4 questions, moderate the chat for the hour and then I send Naomi the transcript. I also moderate the #INALJchat twitter by finding and adding new followers and I promote the chat each week.
I have never thought that in my lifetime, I would be a discussion leader and love it! In person I am actually a pretty introverted person, I work great on my own or in a group, but leading a discussion has never crossed my mind. #INALJchat has been an amazing experience for me. It has given me the opportunity to connect and learn from other librarians in the field, which is very important to me as I am a non-working librarian and I do all that I can to get my name out there. It has given me a great opportunity to use social media to be a leader in the librarian world. I have had many great discussions through #INALJchat on a variety of topics such as conferences, salary, the job hunt, adapting to change and more! I really feel like I have made a difference for a few information professionals based on the feedback I received. I also feel through #INALJchat it’s a great space where idea collaboration can happen because it has happened. Many have gotten ideas for blogs and projects based on conversations in the chats.
I have Naomi to thank for my #INALJchat and blogging experience. I never thought I would love to write and lead discussions in the library world. This has been such a great learning experience for me and I want to continue to strive from this. I actually will be leading some discussions through NMRT (New Members Round Table) in the coming months. I am a member of the NMRT Online Discussion Forum Committee. I will be leading discussions on the NMRT listserv and a NMRT live chat. I am just going up from here; I love leading discussions in the library online world.
So here is what I will leave with you, participate or get involved in a library or info pro tweet chat. You never know what the discussion will be like or what you will learn, so give it a chance! Also library listservs, and other live chats such as Adobe Connect, Google Hangout are great places for discussions so definitely keep an eye on those.
Here are a few of my Tweet Chats:
#INALJchat (obvious)
#libchat (LIS topic chats on Weds nights)
#SLAtalk (Special Libraries Association chats)
#UKlibchat (chats on LIS topics in the UK monthly)
Also check out @Emily_EasyBib‘s list of Librarian related tweetchats
What are some of your favorite Tweet Chats, or other social media library discussions, share in the comments!