A constant theme throughout our LIS 6010 class has been that we are LIS professional will constantly need to be evaluating, learning, and incorporating new technologies into our jobs. The technologies that we will use when are finished, probably have not even been created yet, but understanding how currently technology can be effectively used will give us a better understanding of those new technologies can be incorporated into our jobs. I will now go through and assess several different social media, Web 2.0, and other digital tools on their impact on the LIS profession.
Blogging
As an LIS professional blogging will have its important functions. I can use a blog to spread my ideas about my own profession, or I can search other professionals blogs to get my own ideas. I can use it to try to create interest in my artifacts, books, music, etc, that I am working with. I can suggest it to patrons to help them find the information that they need. An added bonus is that blogs are easy to set up and are almost always free to create or read.
Thus giving ample opportunities for all to participate. I can only really think of two downsides to blogs. First, getting people interested in your blog may prove a little difficult. There are so many blogs out there today, and people may have a hard time knowing that your blog exist, or may simply not have the time to fit one more blog into their daily reading schedule. The second is that it can be time consuming to keep the blog going. Once you get people interested in your blog, they are going to expect you to keep posting to it. People may start to lose interest if you post too infrequently.
Instagram/Snapchat
Instagram and Snapchat can serve important functions for an LIS professional, but they are still not that important because of their limitations. Both Instagram and Snapchat are image based which can be very eye catching to young patrons especially, but time and space consuming. In order to have pictures constantly being posted, so just like blogging and really all social media, people will need constant interaction to stay interested in your account for this. This means finding something interesting to take a picture of, taking the picture, storing the picture on some sort of hard drive, and then posting it. Monitoring responses to the picture may also be time consuming, as if the picture is public, anyone can post what they want as a comment.
Instagram and Snapchat strike me as great tools for advertising. If you work in a library and received a new shipment of young adult books, take a picture, post it, and wait for the patrons to arrive. If you work at a museum and students had a great time on their field trip, take a picture, post it, and wait for other schools to see how of an idea it is for them to take a field trip their as well. I do not think Instagram and Snapchat would be good as actual digital preservation tools, but I think that they offer great free public relations tools.
Facebook/Twitter/Other Social Networking
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter offer text based public relations tools like Instagram and Snapchat, but can also function more effectively as communication tools as well. Groups can easily be formed on Facebook that connect patrons, professionals, students, and staff. Feedback on items, processes, procedures, software, and services, and materials can easily be gotten from maintaining a Facebook page. I have used Facebook extensively as a teacher and as an advisor and it has been very helpful. However, I have also noticed that the population on Facebook seems to be aging, and that the youth are switching to Twitter and Instagram instead. So while Facebook currently is useful, I see it becomes less so in the future.
Twitter limits tweets to 140 characters which can be frustrating and very limiting in the information one tweets, but the hashtag function allow for people to easily track "trends." Tracking trends could be very important to many information professionals, and could even be used by librarians when making choices about the books, videos, magazines, and music that they order for their library.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is probably one of the most important tools for LIS professionals today. Information is being moved from physical hard drives, CD/DVD's, and floppy disks to be stored in a a network of servers that help to disseminate and protect an institutions information. Cloud computing is a relatively cheap form of storage and allows for the data to be easily shared among different users. Patrons are becoming very comfortable with cloud computing as well as most modern phones, tablets, and computers are also using cloud storage.
While I think cloud storage is great and is better than any other current digital storage alternative, there are some negatives to its use. First, anything stored on a cloud can only be accessed if the person wishing to access it has an internet connection. Secondly, being that cloud networks are constantly connected to the internet, they can be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Lastly, there are some issues over copyrights and ownership of cloud materials that need to be sorted out.
Audio and Video Programs
Many LIS professionals seek to get out as much knowledge as they can to as many people as they can. Using the various audio and video programs can be great tools for doing this. Podcasts can be made to help give instructions, lectures, audio books, teleconferencing and much more. There are a plethora of cheap/free audio recording and transmission tools (Skype, Ventrilo, Google Chat, Audacity, and Garage Band to name a few). Creating and posting videos can be just as easy and can be used for similar means, especially if it is important to see what is happening for instructions. Youtube is the most popular video sharing site, but Vines are becoming more prominent as the Twitter of video sharing.
Not only are audio and video programs good for sharing information, but they can also be very important for the advertisement aspect that Instagram and Snap chat also afforded LIS professionals. By being able to post podcasts, videos, and other audio/visual material, LIS institutions can show off their services and skills. Once the public knows what they have to offer, they will be more likely to use the services provided by the LIS institution.
However audio and video programs also have some of the same issues as Instagram and Snapchat. Each podcast and video takes time and space to complete the entire process. Accessibility can be a problem as both audio and video downloads need strong internet connections to be used effectively. Copyright issues can come into play as to who owns the podcast and videos, and how they can be redistributed after being uploaded to a site for the public.
MAPS
Maps can be useful in many ways to LIS institutions. To begin with, using Google Maps or some other mapping program, LIS institutions can better direct patrons to their buildings. When giving information about other institutions or places that can further help their patron, they can once again use one of the digital mapping programs to help them reach their new destination. Books and artifacts can be connected to maps based upon where the story takes place or where they were created. Google maps allows people to explore the geography of the Earth and expand their knowledge of where things are in the world.
I would not say that maps are an essential part of the LIS profession, but they are simple to use and can be used as relatively easy by anyone with an internet connection. There is no real down side for them except for accessibility. They can be very beneficial, but there are more helpful tools such as audio/visual tools, cloud, and social network sites that I would think are more essential to LIS professionals today.
LinkedIn
I think LinkedIn is a tool that is important to LIS professionals as professionals, but is not necessarily important to them on an institutional level. Unless you are the person who is hiring an new LIS employee, LinkedIn is really just a tool to keep in touch with other professionals. It is generally not used a discussion or advertising tool in the way that other social networking sites are used.
I think that the most important Web 2.0 technologies that are in use today are those that help the LIS professional connect with their patrons. Almost all Web 2.0 technologies can achieve this, but some are better than others. For the time being I think Twitter and Facebook are important as social networking, but that soon Facebook will be replaced by something else or be pushed out by Twitter and Instagram. I think the use of audio/visual sites are incredibly important as more people are looking to the digital aspect of an LIS institution rather than the physical space. Using the audio/visual tools allows the LIS institution to give patrons a similar experience to an in-person visit, while the patron stays at home. Lastly, I think that the cloud is the next step in storage. I can see cloud storage as being a stable platform that will allow for many patrons to access even more information than before.
In my own LIS institution I would definitely embrace the Web 2.0 technologies. I do not see them as a fad, and I do not see them leaving anytime soon. While the main tool might change, for example Facebook being replaced by Twitter, people are constantly looking for ways to connect using the internet. To push aside Web 2.0 technologies would mean pushing aside many patrons, rather than embracing their need and want to connect with the institution through the internet.
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