Thing 6 - online networks

Thing 6 – Online networks

LinkedIn – I have a profile and a few connections so I've ticked the box, but it's not something that I feel comfortable with. Mostly I think that's because I'm not actively looking at getting another job at the moment so there isn't that extra incentive to market myself, but it's also because the interface is pretty awful and I can't see the point of it. Perhaps it's the same as updating your CV – despite all the best intentions, I never actually do it until I am applying for jobs and I also can't be bothered to be using LinkedIn right now. I also find it boring compared to other social media experiences, and I really, really hate the way that Aberystwyth University is automatically located in Shrewsbury! Do they not realise how unbelievably insulting that is - why oh why can't they sort that out? OK, rant over, but you can see I'm not the biggest fan of LinkedIn. It's definitely not the office, but more of one of those sad dives just off campus where a few lonely people congregate while everyone else is having far more fun somewhere else.

Facebook

I love Fb for staying in touch with friends and family. I'm also a member of a few closed groups (children's football teams) and that's a wonderful way of sharing information and photos. My biggest worry with Fb is the privacy agenda. Despite shutting down my profile to be viewable by only friends I still worry about this. When I got my latest smartphone I was horrified to see all my Fb friends (some of whom I haven't seen or spoken to for 20 years or so) added to my contacts with mobile phone numbers and email addresses for many of them added as well – very scary!

I'm a bit of a lurker of Fb. I use it mostly for reminders of friends birthdays and quick checks every now and again of what's happening. I hardly ever post anything there myself. Most of my “real” friends are on Fb so it feels much more like a community than LinkedIn, or Twitter (which is almost exclusively professional contacts).... and there's a half hour gap between this half of the sentence and the first half because I got sucked into the black hole of Fb and have only just reappeared.

Despite joining a few library groups, I don't think of Fb as a way of connecting with other librarians or information professionals and I'm happy with that.

LISPN and Librarians as Teachers – I'm no longer a new professional, unfortuantely and I don't teach at the moment either, so just to keep things managable, I'm not going to join any of those groups.

CILIP – I'm not a member, and that's partly because of geography. I now live in a remote part of Wales and travelling anywhere takes forever. This means that getting to CILIP meetings and training etc is very difficult (add 3 children to the mix and it gets even worse). When I worked in Leeds I found CILIP's predecessor (what was it called?) really useful. I regularly went to meetings of the Solo Librarians Group and UC&R. I also used to go to Chartership meetings in a pub after work – not surprisingly I never got around to chartering.

I do feel guilty about this as I know that CILIP is what it's members make it, so if it's not meeting my needs, I have the opportunity to do something about it if I want to get involved. Again, it's a matter of time and priorities.

I'm a bit worried looking back over this post that I'm stuck in a slight rut – using the same social networks that I've always used. Since starting 23 Things I am using Twitter a lot more, and also RSS feeds. I would like to get more involved with CILIP but have given myself too much to do in the past and regretted it, so CILIP will have to wait for now. Managing these online network and chosing the best one for me right now is more important than trying to keep up with all of them.