Resource Review #5

http://gathernodust.blogspot.com/2007/04/twitter-update-or-how-i-was-able-to.html

This resource is a blog post called "Twitter Update or how I was able to exploit the latest social networking site without really trying" by Jeff Scott, Deputy Director of the Tulare County Library System in California. Scott admits that he was skeptical at first about how useful Twitter could be, but he goes on to explain how his library is now making use of Twitter. Scott's library had already used RSS feeds, a Google calendar, blogs, and photo-sharing accounts to produce and disseminate information. Scott discovered that, using http://twitterfeed.com/, he could easily combine the feeds from all of these tools into one Twitter feed, thus making it easier for library users to receive all of the information in one place.

So many of the other resources I've been able to find are basic introductions to Twitter for libraries, or tips for getting started using the site. I like this post because instead of just giving suggestions, it explains in detail how an actual librarian is currently using Twitter. I think it's also very interesting that this post is from April 29, 2007, over two and a half years ago. While that could make it dated, I still chose this resource because it shows that some cutting-edge librarians having been using Twitter succesfully for a long time now, even though it's taken quite a while to become more mainstream.

That said, although this post may be a library Twitter success story, I don't think it's one that all libraries could easily emulate. Using Twitter in the way that Scott describes depends on the preexisting use of many other Web 2.0 tools. It would be rather difficult for a library that is not already so technologically up-to-date or so invested in Web 2.0 tools to follow this example.