Social Networking Literacy Competencies for Librarians

A new direction which I have never explored in a professional capacity is the Teacher Librarian's role of social networking.
According to a paper by Joe Murphy and Heather Moulaison for the ACRL 14th National Conference, Pushing the Edge: Explore, Engage, Extend March 14, 2009:

The social networking literate librarian possesses the skills necessary providing services in and with online social networking sites.
Social networking sites are extremely popular across age groups and are central forums for accessing and sharing information. Librarians are responding to the popularity of social networking sites and their expanding role in the creation, use, and sharing of information by engaging them as a central medium for interacting with library patrons and providing services to meet their information needs.

Librarians need a new branch of skill sets specific to utilising and leveraging social networking sites to provide quality services and maintain their role as information experts in a Web2.0 world.
The following competencies are a suggested set of skills that librarians should possess as social networking literate information professionals capable of implementing library services and utilising information within social networking sites. These include:
* skills for interacting with patrons within the sites
* understanding and articulating the nature of social networking sites and
their potential roles related to library services
* creating presences and content,
* evaluating and applying information, and having the ability to assist patrons with gaining and applying these
skills.



The following competencies, based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency
Standards for Higher Education (American Library Association, September 01, 2006.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm), are general enough to be applicable across various social networking sites and are flexible for new sites and their evolving applications to library services.

Understanding and Articulating Social Networking Sites and Their Roles:
Librarians should be familiar with a diversity of social networking
sites and social media including those most relevant to their patrons.

Creating Content:
Creating, contributing, and revising content in various formats including images, text, audio, video, links, and more within and beyond the presence of their library in a variety of social networking sites with various tools.
This extends to creating the library presence including pages, groups, profiles, and applications.

Evaluating Information
Critically evaluating information encountered in social networking sites on the basis of authority, currency, and bias etc.
Librarians also need to be able to assist patrons in gaining and applying these skills.

Applying Information Ethically and Legally
The social networking literate librarian applies information in social networking sites ethically and legally.

Searching and Navigating
The social networking literate librarian knows how to effectively search and browse
various online social networks for known and unknown contacts, and for information and resources in a variety of formats.

Interacting
Familiar with the diverse methods of communicating with social networking sites and is aware of and able to apply the unique culturalnorms and expectations of each communication method.Communication channels include messaging within the sites, posts on profile walls, comments on status updates, notes, pictures, posted items and blogs, and the sites’ various synchronous chat features.
Also important are the skills for interacting over the various mobile communication
channels popular with some social networking sites. Librarians should posses the skills forinteracting with patrons in these sites via smart phone applications, mobile webpages, email,software and third party clients, and text message.

Teaching
The social networking literate librarian is capable of teaching these skills to library patrons and peers.

Providing Services
Utilises a variety of online social networking sites to provide quality library services.
Evaluate social network sites and choose which are most appropriate to establish a library presence in.
Capable of building and managing the library’s presence in the form of profiles or applications, developing work flows for services,marketing services, weeding spam, understanding and working with privacy levels, assessing the library’s presence and services, leveraging tagging and favoriting, understanding and engaging
vendor and other third party applications, and being aware of relevant security topics.
It is important that librarians are familiar with the steps and etiquette for initiating and responding to friend requests in building networks.

Flexibility
Flexibility is the defining skill for librarians engaging people and information through social networking sites. Librarians must be able to apply the above skills to unique and novel social networking sites as they emerge and evolve. Familiarity with each of the above skills in multiple social networking sites will help librarians be flexible in applying these skills to future
sites and services.

The most important, and possibly hardest to develop, skill is the ability to look ahead,
visualize, create, and manage robust library services in full consideration of and within social networking sites.

I see I have a lot of learning still to do.

What we teach and do

Yesterday I joined OZTL_NET and I received my first digest today. The readings that captured my eye were concerning two posts. One from a Classroom teacher that was appointed to Teacher Librarian 15 years ago in Australia and the other a Head of Information Studies in Hamilton, New Zealand.

What we Teach and Do

OZTL_NET Digest Vol 63 Issue 74

The first was defending her ability to teach in the TL role even though she had no "paper qualifications" and the second was reiterating the importance of teaching Information Literacy and emphasing the unique role of the Teacher Librarian and the "credentials" that the TL should have.

There were some good points in both posts so I have identified them:

Post 1 -
* Classroom teachers only see a fraction of what the role of the TL entails.
* Training and Development in TL is crucial.
* IT Skills are necessary.
* Joining Hub groups is also essential for continued growth and understanding of the TL role.
* Passion and a thirst for knowledge are important characteristics for a TL.

Post 2 -
* Instruction in Information Literacy during training is very important for the TL.
* Whilst classroom teachers who are placed in the TL role without formal qualifications may be literate in the sense of being able to word process or make powerpoint presentations, etc they do not have the expertise in the use of Boolean Strategies for effective searching databases suitable for school students or actually teaching students a research framework or note taking skills or different forms of reading (skim, scan, close) required for researching and much more.
* Library Staff "fill very distinct as well as integrated niches in education but this does not seem to be understood by some. "
* Emphasised that there is a lot of evidence that qualified TLs make a difference.

Another TL post which reponded to these posts added to the importance in the use of Boolean Strategies and suggested a great way to show Boolean searching is through the use of

www.boolify.org .

I will need to find out what this is today.