Thing 12: Response to Social Networking

I discovered Social Networking on a personal level with Facebook when my children went to University, and it was a way of keeping up with what they were doing. Once our school was going through a merger I joined 'Linked In' as a way of job seeking and developing my CV. Since then I've joined the SLN a Yahoo group and Twitter for professional development. CPD23 didn't necessarily help me go further with these, but highlighted aspect such as user groups that have helped. I do believe the social networking can help sole Librarians with a sense of community and support in a very real way. Once sphere I have noted is that social netowrking has enabled a much faster response to events that affect the profession eg. peitions on library closures, the recent remarks about copyright etc. Help is instantly at hand point the direction to documents and statements that make a difference to understanding of problems and possible solutions. SN gives librarians a voice that they never had before. However, I believe that face to face contact is also essential for both community feeling and professional development and shouldn't be pushed to the sidelines in a wave to hop onto the next big thing. We need to have both. After all, we can all see the demise of MySpace. Who knows how long each of these services will last? Librarians are a great breed adapting to change, and these days it seems the only way to survive.