There’s a Twitter Chat for That

by Naomi Gonzalez, Senior Assistant, INALJ Virginia 

 

For those of you who spend what could be called an inordinate amount of time online (ahem), the world of Twitter chats is probably not new ground to you. For those that prefer to spend your time in the physical realm of things or are just getting around to using the ol’ Twitter, allow me to explain.

Twitter chats (also called tweet chats) are live discussions held on Twitter at a designated time and covering a specific topic. The discussion also has a designated hashtag in order to keep tweets from multiple participants in one easy-to-find stream.

If you’ve never participated in a tweet chat before, it can be a little overwhelming at first. In most cases, there’s a moderator who asks questions to keep discussion going– but it can an be difficult to distinguish between replies and side conversations in larger chats. My personal recommendation is to observe a couple of chats before you jump in, just to get a feel for how things work. Also keep in mind that these chats are hosted by different groups and different people, so the style and order will vary. Some even have transcripts available after the chat!

Tweet chats can be a really great way to interact with other librarians on social media and also brainstorm and learn what others are doing in their respective libraries. Here are some fairly popular library/librarian specific chat hashtags to follow:

#inaljchat – I Need a Library Job Chat / Mondays 9pm-10pm EST

#critlib – Critical Pedagogy Chat / Every other Tuesday 9pm-10pm EST

#tlchat – Teacher-Librarian Chat / Second Monday of the month 8pm-9pm EST

#medlibs – Medical Librarians Chat / Thursdays 9pm-10pm EST

#edtechchat – Educational Technology Chat / Mondays 8pm-9pm CST

And one more, because I’m all about #diversebooks!

#gayya – Gay YA (YA lit with LGBTQ content) / Wednesdays 4pm EST

Remember that these are hashtags, so whether or not there are live chats going on the hashtags are likely to still be used in everyday tweets. You might have to scroll down for the chat-specific tweets.

What are some of your favorite Twitter chats?