Thing 12 - Social Media

In my personal life, I have found social media - mainly Facebook - to be of some benefit of keeping in touch with people I already know. For example, I have a cousin in Whitianga, and the main way we keep in touch is through Facebook. I have also reconnected with people I have lost touch with over the years. However, it has not enhanced my circle of friends. I see the same sort of pattern recurring with the different mediums I have tried through cpd23. I am following the blogs of fellow NZ librarians, and some overseas law and academic librarians. However, I can't say that I feel a sense of community through that at this stage. That may be due to my own fault in not keeping up with the play and only working on Thing 12 now, while everyone else is on Thing 18. I'm not sure whether this blog will exist beyond cpd23. My intention is to continue to use it to blog about my pd experiences, but time will tell how that pans out. Writing my own log still feels a little awkward and ego-centric at this point, and I 'm not sure why anyone would want to read about my pd experiences - although I am happy enough reading what everyone else is up to. I think it's that old kiwi trait coming to the fore.

I thought the NZLLA Symposium would provide some opportunity for increasing my social media circles, but so far have only made one new connection through LinkedIn as a direct result of the symposium. I did exchange business cards with some people, so will look for them on the various networks I am signed up to. I will continue to use LinkedIn after the programme has finished.

I still don't really get Twitter. Maybe if/when I get a smart phone or other such device, I will discover why people are so enthusiastic about it.

It seems that the good, old list serve is the dominant force with many librarians in NZ. E-mail seems to be how most NZ librarians stay connected.

I am looking forward to the upcoming SLIS/NZLLA quiz night. It will be a great opportunity to meet up with some of the Law Librarians from Auckland who didn't make it to the symposium. It will be good to meet people in a purely social context as well, and not be worrying about getting back to the office.