Keep Up With Us Through Our Social Media

Did you know that you can follow the library on a wide variety of social networks?

Blog

The blog that you're reading right now has hundreds of entries dating back to 2007.  

Subjects run the gamut from library resources to glimpses of Tarleton history.

Facebook

This is still the world's largest social network, with over a billion users worldwide.  

The Tarleton Libraries have been on it since 2009.  

Keep up with the latest news and events by liking our page.

A screenshot of the library's Facebook page.

Flickr

Flickr is a free photo sharing service.  

Though it may not be as popular as it once was,

 it's still a terrific destination for hobbyists and professional photographers alike.

You can also find sample pictures from various camera models. 

The Tarleton Libraries have over four thousand pictures on the site. 

Our account is filled with great pictures that we didn't have room for 

in our other social media posts. Our account is like a giant photo album.

The Tarleton Libraries' Flickr page.

Instagram

Instagram has over 77 million users.  Our Insta account has great pictures and videos 

that will give you a quick "snapshot" of what we're doing. 

For example, the three pictures below, from left to right, feature:

• a call to donate on Giving Day
• a picture of some of our great student workers, for Student Worker Appreciation Day
• some of our library employees wearing teal shirts for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

A screenshot of the library's Instagram account.

Twitter 

We have over 1800 followers on Twitter, the microblogging service. 

Following us on Twitter is a great way to get bite-sized library news, 

tips for succeeding at Tarleton, and maybe even a re-tweet if you 

mention the library (don't worry, we'll ask your permission first).

A screenshot of the Tarleton Libraries' Twitter account.

YouTube 

Our YouTube account is a great place to go for library tutorials.

A screenshot of our YouTube account.

Pinterest

If you've never tried Pinterest, think of it as a collection of online bulletin boards, organized by subject.  Some of our boards include:

• College Success
• Tarleton History & Traditions
• Featured Resources
• Audiobooks

....and lots more.

A screenshot of our Pinterest account.

We hope you'll join us by following one or more of our social media accounts.  By the way, the best place to get research help is still our Reference desk. You can also call  (254) 968-9249 for the Stephenville campus, or (817) 968-3315 for Texan Hall in Fort Worth. Lastly, you can email us at reference@tarleton.edu.

Do you InstaLibrary? Follow or Tag Us on Instagram

Follow us @tarletonlib

You may have seen that Tarleton Libraries has a Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (as well as other social media accounts)but did you know that we also have an Instagram?

Search for our username @tarletonlib to follow us.

We post Tarleton-related and Library-related photos. For example, we have posted a few renovation updates to keep our users current on what's happening in our building.

We also post images of interesting/visually pleasing things that we find around campus; for example the tulips that are blooming in front of the library.

We're always open for suggestions. Also, if you take a library-related image, you can tag us in the photo or use a hashtag such as #dsl, #tarletonlibrary, #dslibrary, #Tarleton.

Check us out!  



Photos Taken By: Tracy Holtman

Midterm Mania

Want to contribute to the Midterm Mania conversation?
 Check out the hashtag: #TSUMidtermMania

Midterm Mania is happening NOW! 

Are you bogged down with midterms? Have a huge research paper due? 

Check out the library's Twitter account: @TarletonLib

During Midterm Mania, we have been tweeting helpful tips for students concerning Midterms.

Don't have a Twitter? That's okay. 

We've also been posting to Facebook. 

Check us out and Follow and/or Like us. 

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Starting today, Tarleton Libraries are celebrating Banned Books Week, 

September 22-28th. 

Wondering how you can celebrate your freedom to read this week? 

Check out a banned book and read to find out why it was banned. 

 Not sure which books are banned? 

Take a look at one of our newest social media accounts to find the answer:

We're on Pinterest; check us out this week! 

The library is on Pinterest, and we have a "Challenged Books" pin board. Our staff has been pinning examples of banned books so you can check them out. 

We also post other information, such as Tarleton History and Traditions, Library/Campus Events, Featured Resources, Art/Writing done by Tarleton Faculty, Staff, or Students, and much more. 

Follow Us!

If you have any questions concerning Banned Books Week or any other question, 

please feel free to contact us:

(254)968-9249 or reference@tarleton.edu 

Privacy: Opt In or Out - A Choice

The Dec. 19, 2011 Slate article "Saving Face: How Google, Facebook, and other tech companies hide behind “opt-in” policies" by Evgeny Morozov raises some interesting points about social media and privacy. Reminded me that I need to check the settings on my accounts; how about you?

Top Ten Tuesday - 10 Most Popular Social Networking Sites

With the Texas Social Media Research Institute (TSMRI) having their conference this Friday, I thought I would share this list of the most popular social networking sites.  You can read the entire list of fifteen and how they are ranked on this webpage.  The library is using some of these social media sites.  Click on the links to follow us!

• Facebook - over 700,000,000 unique monthly visitors!
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• MySpace
• Ning
• Google Plus+
• Tagged
• Orkut
• hi5
• myyearbook

Do you use any other social media sites?  Post a comment and share!

Free Social Media Icon Sets

Want to liven up your web presence? Need icons?

Ellyssa Kroski at iLibrarian has compiled an extensive list of sites offering free, downloadable icons for social websites like

• Design Float,
• Facebook,
• Flickr,
• Gamespot,
• LinkedIn,
• Smashing Magazine,
• Trip Advisor,
• Twitter,
• YouTube, and
• many, many more.

The icon designers use a wide array of design styles. Choose what fits your style and personalize to your heart's content. Check 'em out!

Facebook & Privacy: Are You Exposed?

• Do you have a Facebook account?
• Did you choose the default privacy settings instead of setting your own?
• Are you wondering what others can learn about you?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, take a few minutes to read the article 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now by Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb.

Perez's article discusses Facebook's December privacy policy changes, explains ways the changes may increase exposure of private information, and gives tips for checking and setting your Facebook privacy settings to control:

• who can see the things you share (status updates, photos, videos, etc.),
• who can see your personal information, and
• what Google can see (i.e. keeping your data off the search engines).

The article also links to additional articles discussing Facebook's recent changes and privacy concerns.

Archiving Tweets

In today's digitally connected world of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, and blogs two questions come to mind. Is any of this historically significant enough to archive for future generations and how do you archive what resides in the electronic cloud? There is historically significant material in all of these social networking sites. It demonstrates how we communicate with each other in the age of connectedness and what we think is important. Looking at Twitter as an example, you may wonder how something that is only 140 charters long may be important. The length of the message is no indication of the importance of the message. Some short messages that became historical quotes include John Paul Jones "I have not yet begun to fight"; Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!"; "Remember the Alamo"; or Neil Armstrong's "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind". Participants at events document the event by sending tweets to each other.

While your tweets never disappear from your stream, they do disappear from Twitter. Currently Twitter only holds tweets for 1.5 weeks. This means that if a tweet is more than a week and a half old a search of Twitter will not retrieve it. The solution is to archive tweets yourself. There are several ways to do this and the Read Write Web site has an article on archiving your tweets at: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_ways_to_archive_your_tweets.php . Therefore, if you feel the need to archive tweets check out this excellent article.

Five Ideas on Social Media and Advocacy

Max Macias posted an interesting slideshow with ideas about advocacy and social media on Lowrider Librarian. He also includes a list of resources.

Productivity Tools for Bloggers

Barb Dybwad at Mashable: The Social Media Guide offers "20 Simple Productivity Tools for Bloggers," which guides readers to resources for improving blogging workflow. She groups her recommendations into these categories:

• Multiple Clipboard Tools
• Blog Right from Firefox with Scribefire
• Save Typing Time with Text Shortcuts
• Firefox Extensions for Working with Text
• Site-Specific Browsers
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Edit Images Right In Your Browser

Happy blogging!

20 Facebook Tips/Tricks

20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know at Hongkiat.com offers a quick guide and instructions to some Facebook features that you might find useful. The features include how to

• Download Facebook Photo Albums
• Share Flickr Photos to Facebook
• Schedule Facebook Messages
• Hide Facebook Status Updates
• Know When Facebook Friends Secretly Delete or Block You
• Remove Facebook Advertisements
• Sync Photos of Facebook Friends with Contacts in Microsoft Outlook
• Get Facebook Updates on Email

Check out the article to learn about these features and 12 more.

Keeping Track of your Social Networks

The MakeUseOf post "20 Tips to Define and Manage Your Social Networks" by Mahendra Palsule gives useful strategies for managing multiple online networks. The post is organized in two parts and offers suggestions like these from part one :

• Visualize Your Social Map
• Define Your Target Audience
• Use a Password Manager
• Separate Private & Public Photo-Sharing
• Use One Social Bookmarking Site
• Use a Gravatar
• Use Social Surfing
• Integrate IM, Email, and Social Networking
• Use a Consistent Username
• Track Your Comments

Palsule also gives links to online tools to help the process. These strategies and tools should make social networking more manageable and less confusing/fatiguing. Happy networking!

10 social media sites for college students

Ok, you all probably already know about and have accounts on Facebook and MySpace. But, did you know that there are a huge number of other social networking sites out there geared toward college students to help you network, collaborate, communicate, and make your daily college tasks a bit easier.

Check out these 10 must try sites put together by David Spinks, a graduating senior in New York.

• Cramster - Get homework help here by other students and educators.
• InternshipRatings - Internship reviews from students that have been there.
• Zimride - Search for rideshares.
• Box.net - Secure online file server.
• Twitter: @heatherhuhman - Tweets helpful information to those seeking internships and entry level jobs. @collegebloggers - Connects college students, faculty, and alumni bloggers, sharing relevant content.@careerealism - Career experts tweet career advice in response to questions sent in by readers.@sweetcareers - Great tips for college students and job seekers.@findinternships - Informative resource for those looking for internships.
• Remember the Milk - Convenient place to manage your daily tasks.
• Gradefund - Earn money for your good grades.
• Evernote - Cool tool that allows you to capture information and access it later, from any computer.
• Zumeo - Job search/online resume site.
• CampusBooks - Buy, sell or donate your textbooks.

Tips for Managing Social Media Profiles

If you have several social media profiles (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc.), you've no doubt discovered how time consuming it is to

• make sure your pictures and personal info stay current,
• keep spam deleted,
• update contact lists, and so on.

To get some tips for efficiently dealing with these tasks, check out Ben Parr’s How To: Manage Multiple Social Media Profiles post on Mashable: The Social Media Guide. He notes that creating consistency in your web presence and keeping content updated and fresh are vital. However, with "a little upfront effort, the task of maintaining multiple profiles can be less tedious, freeing up time to better connect with other people."

In his post, Parr outlines five steps in this process:

1. Understand your Current Position:
   Find out where you have and don't have profiles using Check User Names,
2. Choose Your Platforms Realistically:
   Figure out which ones work best for you.
3. Organize!
   Find a system and stick with it.
4. Automate and Combine Your Profiles
   Use services such as Ping.fm, Twitterfeed, and Atomkeep to update your profiles.
5. Keep it Fresh
   Use tools like Shareaholic to make updating content easier.

Social Networking - Do you twitter?

According to a recent Nielsen report, Twitter.com, Tagged.com and Ning are the fastest growing U.S. social networking sites. The analysis ranks social networks by year-over-year unique audience growth. Between September 2007 and September 2008, Twitter showed a 343% growth rate, Tagged.com 330%, and Ning 251%.

Which Social Networking sites do you use? Do you use them only for fun or for work and school? Post a comment and let us know your favorite and how you use it!

Meebo Me!

Have you ever wanted to IM (instant message) a librarian here at the Dick Smith Library? Well, now you can!

We are testing Meebo to see if and how an IM service would be used with the library. In one click, wirh no registration or download required (unless the computer you are using does not already have Flash 7.0 or later installed), you can start typing in the chat window below to talk with me, the librarian!



1. If you need help, you can check to see if I am online here, and send me an instant message with this widgit.

2. Click on "edit nickname" near the bottom and type in your first name (if you like).

3. In the box where it says "Type here and hit enter to send a private message," type your question and hit the Enter key. No one but me will see your message, it will not show up here on the blog!

If I am online, I’ll try to reply right away. Give me a couple moments, as I usually have lots of windows open! If I’m not available (offline, away, sleeping, etc.), you can leave me a message with your e-mail address, and I will reply. Don’t refresh the window or navigate away or the session is lost.

Give this trial service a try, and let us know what you think of it in the comments!

Social Networks & Privacy

Much has been said and written about social networking (Facebook, blogs, MySpace, etc.) regarding privacy concerns (personal safety, identity theft, etc.). Lately, these conversations have focused on another topic -- the effects that online activities can have on employment (current and future).

Several campus venues have been used to inform the Tarleton community about these effects. For example, Career Services in the Division of Student Life has offered workshops, seminars, and presentations about "cleaning up digital dirt."

The articles listed below provide more information about this timely topic. Take a look.

• How Blogging and Social Networking Can Impact Your Job Search


• Employers Are Viewing Your Profile on Social Networking Sites
  
• Employers Using Facebook for Background Checking: Is It Legal?
  
• How to Use Facebook Without Losing Your Job Over It

Privacy online

A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States by Susan B. Barnes in First Monday -- "Teenagers will freely give up personal information to join social networks on the Internet. Afterwards, they are surprised when their parents read their journals. Communities are outraged by the personal information posted by young people online and colleges keep track of student activities on and off campus."

The linked article discusses privacy issues in social networks and examines solutions to these issues. What do you think? Is privacy a outdated concept? Should it be?

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Michael Wesch’s YouTube video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" (aka "Web 2.0 in Just Under 5 Minutes") is an insightful look at how technology impacts everyone's lives.

The video explores ideas like:

• “change in one area (such as the way we communicate) can have a profound effect on everything else, including family, love, and our sense of being itself,”
• “everything is connected throughout all time,”
• “all people on the planet are connected,” and
• technology creates opportunities “for us to make a profound difference in the world.”

This video is one of the projects by Wesch and a group of cultural anthropology students (digital ethnography working group) that explore “impacts of digital technology on human interaction and human interaction on digital technology.”

You’ll find an informative interview with Michael Wesch that discusses this video and other projects on John Battelle’s Searchblog.