Skokie Public Library [@skokielibrary]

SPL sends out Tweets every Wednesday, asking their community of followers to try to “Stump the Librarian.” The tweets direct people to their Facebook page, where people post questions to test the librarian’s skills. The game runs all day and Skokie Librarians post the answers they find to the Facebook page.

skokie tweet

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library [@Kennedy1960]

The JFK Presidential Library created @Kennedy1960, where they re-enact JFK’s 1960
presidential campaign trail. The tweets are done in “real time” as if it were 1960. The library not only tweets what JFK was doing at the moment, but they tweet quotes from his campaign speeches and links to archived material such as congratulatory letters and other
documents created or received during the campaign. Yesterday they posted a link to a scanned copy of a letter from May 12, 1960, from Congressman Daniel Flood congratulating JFK on his win in West Virginia. It’s really neat to actually see the scanned copy of the original document. @Kennedy1960 has over 2,100 followers!

jfk1960 tweet

Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library’s Job Help Center [@JHCatCML]

CMPL has created a Job Help Center for their community. It has a manager, they have a job finder (a self service tool that helps job seekers explore local career opportunities) and they have access to career-related databases. In addition, they offer programming for people interested in employment, career changes, etc. Their twitter account provides information about all these resources.

jhcatcml tweet

Nebraska Library Commission [@nlc_reference]

When they originally created their account, they published tweets with only the questions they received, but no answers. However, recently they started adding links to answers. It’s fun to follow them to see what types of questions they get as well as the authoritative sources they use to find the answers. Patron information is not revealed in these tweets, so there are no privacy issues to worry about.

New York Public Library’s multiple accounts [@nypl]

The NYPL has created Twitter accounts tailored to different segmented markets. This is a great idea because it allows folks to pick and choose NYPL Twitter feeds that fit their interests. Some examples of NYPL Twitter accounts:

• New York Public Library Digital Experience Group [@nypldgtl]
• LIVE from the NYPL [@LIVEfromtheNYPL]
• NYPL Manuscripts Division [@NYPLMssarchives]
• NYPL Map Division [@NYPLMaps]
• New York Public Library at Nite [@NYPLatNite]
• Teen Central [@TnCntrl]
• Young Lions [@Young_Lions]
• Homework Help [@HomeworkNYC]
• NYPL Kids [@nyplkids]
• Library Shop [@nyplshop]
• NYPL Teaching [@teachNYPL]
• Summer Reading Program [@summerreading]

But not all job listings can be found on websites or via classified ads… Many jobs are found via networking as well as via emerging social media tools… This includes twitter, of course…

So yes… There is a search engine that scours twitter tweets for job announcements: TwitterJobSearch. I gave it a lil’ go by searching for “librarian” and it produced over 106 results. I perused the results and they were all very relevant – no random non-library job announcements popped up.

The folks from TwitterJobSearch describe their product as a search engine that uses semantic tools to look at what has been tweeted – context. TwitterJobSearch allows you to sort results by date or relevance. You can create RSS feeds, and refine your results by salary, country, job title (i.e., librarian, assistant, teacher), when it was tweeted, skills, and job type (i.e., full time, permanent, etc.).

Overall, it’s a pretty simple job search engine with a lil’ bit o’ punch. I definitely like what it has to offer and see it as an innovative way to cover ground in the job search.

I have received quite a few comments from folks around the globe (which has been really GREAT, by the way!) Instead of incorporating them into the long, long list of Twittering Libraries, I decided to keep that list as U.S. only, for organizational sake. Hence below is a growing list of International Twittering Libraries.

If you have any recommendations and/or would like your library to be added to this list, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you!

• ACT Public Library & Heritage Library (Canberra, Australia)
• Adelaide City Library (Adelaide, Australia)
  
• Alexandrina Library (Australia)
• Biblioteca AGS (Aguascalientes, México)
• Biblioteca Francisco Xavier Clavigero (Mexico City, Mexico)
• Bibliotheque Brossar (Brossard, Québec, Canada)
• Bibliothèques de MTL (Montréal, Canada)
  
• Bibliothèque du Collège François-Xavier-Garneau (Québec,Canada)
• Bibliothèque Toulous (France)
• Bibliothèque_UGB (Saint-Louis, Senegal)
• Birkbeck Library (Bloomsbury, London, UK)
• Bracebridge Public Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Bradford Libraries (Bradford, UK)
• British Library – Americas Collection (St Pancras, London, England)
• British Library – Business & IP Centre (London, England)
• British Library (London, England)
• Burnside Library (Australia)
• Canterbury Libraries (Canterbury, UK)
• Cambridge University Library (UK)
• Central Hawke’s Bay District Libraries (New Zealand)
• Central Library, Regent Circus (Swindon, Wiltshire, UK)
  
• Cheam Library (Cheam, Surrey)
• Deakin University Library (Australia)
• Delft University of Technology (Delft, Netherlands)
• De Montfort University Library (Leicester, England)
• Dixie Grammar School (Market Bosworth, UK)
• Dublin Business School Library (Dublin, Ireland)
• Dunedin Public Libraries (New Zealand)
• Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Public Library (Dublin, Ireland)
• Dungannon Library (Ireland)
• Durham University Library (Durham/Stockton-on-Tees, UK)
• Edinburgh City Libraries (Edinburg, Scotland)
  
• Edmonton Public Library (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
• Feminist Library (London, England, UK)
• Fleetwood Libraries (Lancashire, UK)
• Greater Victoria Public Library (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
• Guille-Allès Library (Guernsey, England, UK)
• Hague Public Library (Amsterdam)
  
• Idea Store (England)
• Imperial College Science Library (London, England)
• International Labour Organization (Switzerland)
• International Library of New Zealand
• Fleetwood Library (Lancashire, UK)
• Flinders University (Australia)
• Grey Lynn Library (Auckland, New Zealand)
• Hastings District Libraries (Sunny Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand)
• Haringey Librares (London Borough of Haringey, UK)
• High Country Library (Wangaratta, Northeast Victoria, Canada)
  
• International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics Library (Lund, Sweden)
  
• Joe Fortes Library (Vancouver, Canada)
• John Rylands University Library (Manchester, England, UK)
• Kapiti Libraries (Kapiti Coast, New Zealand)
• Kingston Frontenac Public Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Lancashire Libraries (Lancashire, England)
  
• Leeds Libraries (Leeds, UK)
• Leicestershire Libraries (UK)
  
• Manukau Libraries (Manukau, New Zealand)
• McGill University Library (Montreal, Canada)
• McMaster University (Canada)
• Medicine Hat Public Library (Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada)
• Metropolitan University Leeds Met Library (UK)
• Milton Keynes Library (Milton Keynes, UK)
• Mt. Barker Library (Australia)
• Mt. Gambier Library (Mt. Gambier, South Australia)
• National Library of Australia
• National Library of New Zealand
• Newcastle University, UK arts and humanities liaison team
• Newcastle University Library & Info Science, Agriculture & Engineering team
• Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet
• Open University Library, Milton Keyens (UK)
• Pelham Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Plymouth Libraries (UK)
• Red Deer Public Library (Alberta, Canada)
• Rodney Libraries (New Zealand)
• St. John’s Nottingham Library (UK)
• Scottish Poetry Library (Edinburgh, Scotland)
• Sheffield Libraries
• Smethwick Library (Sandwell, UK)
• Sprowston Library (Norwich, England)
• State Library of Queensland (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
• State Library of South Australia
• State Library of Western Australia
• Stirling Libraries (Scotland)
• Streaky Bay Library (Streaky Bay, Australia)
• Stockton Libraries (Stockton-on-Tees)
• Sutton Mobile Library (Sutton, Surrey, UK)
  
• Surrey Libraries (Surrey, UK)
  
• Tararua District Libraries (New Zealand)
  
• The Itinerant Poetry Library (traveling the world–”anywhere I can get to”)
• Toronto Public LIbrary (Toronto, Canada)
• Townsville Library (Townsville, Australia)
• Universidad de A Coruña Biblioteca de Caminos (A Coruña, Spain)
• Universiti Brunei Darussalam Digital Library (Brunei)
• University College of Dublin (Dublin, Ireland)
• University College London Science Library
• University of Glamorgan (Wales, UK)
• University of Lethbridge Library (Alberta, Canada)
• University of Liverpool Library (Liverpool, UK)
  
• University of London Birkbeck Library (UK)
• University of London Goldsmiths Library (UK)
• Universtities at Medway Drill Hall Library (UK)
• University of Notre Dame (London, UK)
• University of Otago Library (Dunedin, New Zealand)
  
• University of Oxford Bodleian Law Library (UK)
• University of Portsmouth Library (UK)
• University of  Stavanger (Stavanger, Norway)
• University of Sussex (Falmer, East Sussex, UK)
• University Technology of Syndey (Syndey, Australia)
• University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica)
• University of Wolverhampton Librarians (West Midlands, England)
• Victor Harbor Public Library (Victor Harbor, South Australia)
• Vienna University Library (Austria)
• Warwick University Library (Warwick, Coventry, UK)
• Wellcome Library (London, England, UK)
• Wellington City Libraries (New Zealand)
• West D’tonshire Libraries (Dunbartonshire, Scotland)
• Westminister Library (Central London, UK)
• Whitburn Library (Whitburn, West Lothian)
• Whitby Public Library (Whitby, Ontario, Canada)
• Yale College Bersham Road LRC (Wrexham, Wales, UK)
• Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) – supporting reading in public libraries
• Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) – local and family history
• Zayed University Library (United Arab Emerates)

In my exuberance to learn as much as possible (as a rookie info professional would do), I have been following a lot of folks, especially libraries. I have been wanting to cut my twitter follower numbers down, so I gave Twitoria a try. I found over 35 folks that haven’t tweeted in over a month. I think I’ll be giving a few of those folks the boot…

Cheers to the CBCPL!

The map shows what people were twittering about during the Super Bowl. As time goes on in the game — press the play button on the timeline at the top of the map — you can see what words are being twittered – and where!

I can see why he is well-revered in the librarian community – even though he is probably one of the busiest guys in the profession, he took time to read what I put together and replied back with an offer to do a guest posting on his blog, Tame the Web. I am still so happy and grateful of that opportunity!

You can read the original post here, but I thought I’d go ahead and post it below as well.

More on Twittering Libraries…a TTW Guest Post by Lindy Brown

Lindy shared her project for LIS5313 with me via email and I asked her to share her study with TTW readers. Thanks Lindy! Michael

Recently, I read a post from Mashable.com about Twitter’s staggering growth in 2008: Twitter grew 752 percent in 2008 for a total of 4.43 million unique visitors in December! What does this mean for libraries? As Twittermania spreads, more and more of their patrons are will use it to communicate, socialize and make connections.  As such, libraries should see the unlimited potential Twitter can have to connect them to their community and beyond.

Libraries must adjust to reflect the expanded use of social media by our youth (see the recent John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur report from the Digital Youth Project). Much has been debated and discussed about the library staying relevant; I believe we must meet our users “where they’re at.” One way to do this is through social media, and Twitter is part of that repertoire.

This past fall I wrote an article titled Twittering Libraries for my LIS 5313 (Design & Production of Media) graduate class at Florida State University. The article provides background information and a brief history of Twitter, notes the pros and cons reported by libraries using it, and shares findings on innovative ways libraries are using the service.

At the time, I found about 90 libraries on Twitter and I emailed the survey to all of them. Sixty-five libraries/librarians replied. From that information, I wrote my article. I found out that overall, most librarians said Twitter is easy, fun, free to use, is a great marketing and public relations tool, allows for collaboration amongst staff and community, provides opportunities for professional development and networking, has strength in its brevity, and allows libraries to, as one librarian put it, “build street cred.”

My article is just a little window into the endless possibilities that Twitter can provide for libraries/librarians. Since then, I have found many more libraries using Twitter. Furthermore, recent comments on blog posts by Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian) and the ACRL blog show continued expansion and ingenious uses of Twitter. (Definitely check out Brian Mathews’ paper, Twitter & the Library: Thoughts on the Syndicated Lifestyle, that is connected to the ACRL post).

Some may argue that Twitter is yet another web 2.0 fad, but I believe we’re only seeing the beginning of its utility. Even with a limited reach, Twitter is a free and not-so-time-intensive tool that libraries/librarians can use to improve their services, create relationships with their patrons and community, and use for assessment and promotion. I believe that with 752 percent growth in just the past year, Twitter is more than just a fad, and its reach currently has limitless potential.

If you or your library is using Twitter in a way not discussed in the LIS 5313 article, please share!

If you’re interested in checking out the goings on from folks that are there, do a twittersearch for #alamw09. Twittersearch allows you to follow your results via an RSS feed, which I have done in my RSS reader, bloglines.

Or, you can follow #alamw09 on hastags.org or subscribe via RSS feed there too…