You Are Not Alone: Social Networks in School Library Media Centers Image: Some of My Social Networking Friends (from Twitter Mosaic)
“We’re all in this alone.”—Lily Tomlin ecause schools generally employ only one or perhaps two professional school library media specialists, many school library media specialists often feel isolated. But it’s a big wide connected world we live in, and many of the new web tools offer possibilities for ending isolation, fostering collaboration, and building relationships with others. One category of these tools that seems particularly appropriate for school library media specialists is that of social networks. Social networks can provide professional contacts, dialogs, collaboration and relationships. They are also great tools for students and teachers.
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What is a social network?
Donna Baumbach, Ed.D. Professor Emerita, University of Central Florida
“Online social networks are communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most services are primarily web-based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on. Social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information with one another in today’s society. Various social networking websites are being used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis and it now seems that social networking is a part of everyday life.” (Wikipedia) In her blog post “You Tell Two Friends and I’ll Tell Two Friends and So On and So On...,” JoAnne Gibson adds, “In addition to being able to connect with others who share common interests, family and friends, most social networking sites allow participants to communicate synchronously in live “chats”, and asynchronously sending e-mails, uploading videos, pictures, text files and music. They are a place to join or create new clubs or social forums, post messages on personal bulletin boards, create social calendars and personal blogs, play games, take quizzes and advertise anything you want for free. In fact, there are so many ways to personalize social networking sites that for some people, they have become virtual extensions of their physical selves.” (http://tinyurl.com/68tc8g) Over the past few years, thousands of social networks have appeared on the Internet. There are networks for every occupation, every hobby, every age group, every interest. If you can’t find one that meets your needs and interests, there are free online web tools to help you create one, enabling you to dialogue and share with like-minded others anywhere in the world.
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“When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be —Tennessee Williams lonely alone.” • Ning (www.ning.com) A site for creating your own social network for personal or professional use—or both! Or you can join one that already exists. Search for topics of interest to you to see Nings that exist. This is a Of the many tools available for use in school library great social networking tool for teachers and students media programs, my 2008 survey revealed social networks because they can easily be created for any topic or to be among the least known and least used category of group, can be customized with your own colors and tools. Nevertheless, some school library media specialists features, and can be private (open to “members” only.) are using these tools, and there is much potential benefit A search on the term “school library” revealed over when used by library media specialists, teachers and 9000 nings ranging from those established for individual students. According to the survey, the five most popular school library media programs to international social networking tools used by school library media professional associations to district- and state-wide specialists are: school library media groups. Here are few Ning groups that may be of interest to you: • MySpace (www.myspace.com) Virtual community site • Literacy Forum: Joining diverse groups of people allows users to network, meet people, browse their to engage in literacy dialogue, collaborate on profiles, and make friends from all around the world. projects and boost literacy levels from coast to There are many groups for librarians and/or school coast to coast and country to country. library media specialists. Many libraries and school • Classroom 2.0: For those interested in Web 2.0 and libraries maintain pages in MySpace because young collaborative technologies in education. people are frequent visitors. Note: There is some concern • eBooks in Education: A place to discuss and learn among educators that young people may not want us in about the potential and the pitfalls of using ebooks their virtual world, but MySpace can be used to connect in education. with other professionals—although there may be better • EdubloggerWorld: Created to facilitate choices. connections and community among educational • Facebook (www.facebook.com) A bloggers worldwide. social utility that connects people with • Great Libraries: For school library media friends and others who work, study supervisors and live around them. People • Libraries 2.0: What’s new and what’s coming in use Facebook to keep up libraryland? See the school libraries group, too. with friends, upload an • Teacher-Librarian Network: For those unlimited of us who connect, teach, share, and number of lead in new information landscapes— photos, share library media specialists! There are also links and videos, and many groups within T-LN, too. learn more about the (http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/groups) people they • BookVideoNing: Sharing media (in meet. The ISTE any digital format) to promote books, special interest reading, and literacy K-12. group for school • Book Trailers: Just like movie trailers or library media music videos, these trailers allow you to find out specialists has a more about a book in an exciting and entertaining My FaceBook Network (powered by TouchGraph) Facebook page. way! there is a Librarians and Facebook group and a • Treasure Mountain Online: Dialogue and discuss Librarians and Web 2.0 group. Once you register (free), research about school library media centers you can search for people or groups with like interests.
What social networks are being used by school library media specialists?
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create, share, rate, and comment on content. Social networks bring those features—and more—together in one application.
How are school library media specialists using social networks? School library media specialists report they are using social networking to: • Learn about social networking and its potential for teaching and learning • Teach students, teachers and parents about social networks and safety issues (http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/video)
Top of the video page from the Teacher-Librarian Network Library media specialists can share videos they or their students have created.
• Tuesdays with Karen: Encouraging, equipping and empowering teachers with creative technology • 23Thingsters: A Ning group for people who want to learn more about Web 2.0 tools • Ning in Education: For those using the Ning social networking platform in education—includes those new to Ning and experienced Ning users
• Establish a presence on MySpace or Facebook for their school library media center so that students and parents can become aware of and access library media center resources and information • Share information and ideas, request help, and learn from other professionals • Share what they are reading, reviews and ideas about books with colleagues, parents and students
• Twitter (www.twitter.com) A service for friends, family, and colleagues to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Limited to posts or messages of 140 characters or less, Twitter has been in the news lately as “the” popular thing to do. I’ve found some great school library media specialists and educational technology professionals to follow on Twitter, and they’ve led me to some great resources and ideas.
• Host videos, photos and discussions with colleagues, teachers, and/or students
• LibraryThing (www.librarything.com) Enter a title that you’re reading or your whole library—it’s an easy, library-quality catalog. LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things. Show your books: on a shelf or as a list. Library Journal says, “LibraryThing is a highly social service: find similar users, join groups, subscribe to watch lists or RSS feeds of your favorite LibraryThing catalogers, discuss books, and comment on others’ collections.” LibraryThing for Libraries (www.librarything.com/forlibraries) ets you integrate many of LibraryThing’s features in your own online catalog, and a widget allows you to share titles and cover images on your blog or webpage.
• Store related things together: videos, photos, articles, RSS feeds, etc. by curriculum area, teacher, or research topic
There are hundreds of other social networking tools available. Other Web 2.0 tools including blogs, wikis, and photo and video sharing sites have social aspects: you can
• Keep in touch with friends, family and library media specialists in other schools and districts • Work collaboratively on professional committees • Provide a collaborative workspace for students’ multimedia projects • Provide a collaborative workspace for teacher/lms work on different topics
• Provide a virtual meeting and sharing place for book clubs • Provide detailed cataloging for new titles • Find new titles for students to read based on their interests • Identify new titles for professional and personal reading and viewing • Collaborate with colleagues who have similar interests worldwide • Offer pre-conference information and activities and/or provide a “digital scrapbook” of conference activities and then extend the discussion and networking beyond the event
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Social networking can be used to communicate and collaborate with other school library media specialists, with teachers, with students or with the larger school community or among several or all of those groups. The WebTools4UWiki at http://tinyurl.com/bq2hl provides ideas for using social networking in the school library media center, more social networking tools including a number of social networks that may be of interest to school library media specialists, tutorials, and links to more information about this topic.
What can be posted on a social network? Each social network offers some unique feature, but most—like Nings—have the following things in common: • Customization: Use your logo — or any other image — at the top of your network. Choose your colors and/or template and name your network. The URL will be unique as well. • Text and Widgets: Insert widgets from other websites or create an area for your weekly newsletter, special promotions or announcements. • Member Profiles: Each member of your network has a profile with his or her photo or avatar, basic demographic information and everything they’ve contributed to the network. • Discussion Forum: Get people talking. Start a discussion on any topic and watch your members respond with posts, photos and attachments • Event Listings: Schedule events, invite network members, and keep track of who’s attending. Great for staff development meetings, new title showcases, special events, author visits, etc. • Interest Groups: Create groups inside your social network around hobbies, interests, affinities, geographical locations, subjects taught, assignments, or anything. • Real-time Activity Stream: Keep up with the members of your social network. Find out what your members are saying, how they’re interacting and what they’re sharing. • Video Players: Upload original footage or share videos from popular video services like YouTube, Google Video and Vimeo. • Photos & Slideshows: Post photos and organize them into albums. You and your members can show off your photos in galleries or slideshows.
My Facebook Contacts (generated by Friend Wheel)
How I can use a social to share with colleagues? The Teacher-Librarian Network (http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/) is a great example of a social network that already exists for colleagues to share ideas and resources. There are discussions, blog postings, videos created by school library media specialists and their students, photos, book reviews, links to professional resources, announcements and news and more. You can add friends, email colleagues, post private messages and more. There are over 2400 members from all over the world willing to share ideas and resources, give you feedback and become your professional colleague. I posted a question on TL-N about social networks for this article and had an answer within minutes. Although I’ve never met some of my “friends” on TL-N, I feel I know each of them quite well due to our interactions in the network. If the thought of 2400 potential friends seems overwhelming or you feel your interests and issues are more local, you could start a similar network through Ning for your colleagues in your district, for your state professional association members or committees, or for the faculty in your school. In her Never Ending Search blog (http://tinyurl.com/5nr64u), Joyce Valenza (who created the Teacher-Librarian Ning, by the way) talks about using a Ning as a video parking lot. You can upload videos of less than 100MB, more than YouTube, Flickr and many other video sharing sites allow. In addition, you’d be sharing the videos with a smaller community of interested
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viewers rather than the entire world. You can share videos, slideshows, and photos you have created with other school library media specialists. Think of providing a place for all media specialists in the district to post a video of their best storytelling or booktalk, share photos of their best bulletin boards and displays, share annual reports, or describe the best idea they’ve implemented during the year. You could post questions and get answers from your colleagues, share favorite resources, book reviews, purchasing information…the possibilities are limitless.
How can social networks be used with students to facilitate learning? A report from the National School Board Association reported that 96% of students with Internet access use social networking tools (Creating & Connecting, 2007). Popular sites like My Space and Facebook were originally geared to students, so young people are frequent visitors to those sites. Their widespread use and abuse have been reported in the media, and those reports may lead to the idea that social networks are not appropriate to education. However, social networks provide opportunities for students to learn the techniques, rights and responsibilities of creating content for the World Wide Web as well as for being consumers of the information others create. Many students aren’t aware of privacy settings and how to limit the information that is available to others, for example. They may not be aware that content they create online may be accessible to others—like parents, future employers, and potential colleges. Learning to be responsible citizens in a digital world is critical—even if the tools are only used for social and recreational purposes. Learning to use these tools, create content, stay safe, provide feedback and communicate in positive ways is a component of information literacy. Many authors, including those who write for children and young adults, have established profiles on social networks so that students can learn more about them and communicate with them. There is a teen author MySpace index, for example at http://tinyurl.com/5rgmwp and FaceBook offers a group for children’s authors and illustrators at http://tinyurl.com/6b454y. Valenza’s “parking lot” idea works for students, too. Students can post and share their research findings and resources or their video book reports, presentations and
other products on a social network. With a Ning, for example, you control how your social network looks, who can post, who can access the information and provide feedback. You can also create a Ning for students and/or teachers, too, with resources and ideas for a topic in the curriculum. Imbee (http://www.imbee.com/) is another social networking tool designed for students and teachers that might work well for upper elementary and middle school students. Imbee provides lesson plans based around social networking and to help students learn about social networks. Imbee authenticates the identity of every member and requires authorization from a parent or teacher for every account. They also have dozens of curriculum related groups your students can join and polls in which students can participate. There are groups for science, hobbies, geography, books, celebrities; blogging tools, audio, photo and video sharing are available. If neither a Ning nor an Imbee will work for your students, there are dozens of other social networks from which you can choose. Be sure to read the terms of use and privacy policies for any of these tools before you use them. I read about a very successful project where students were asked to play the role of a character in history or in literature and complete a MySpace profile as if they were that character including favorite quotations, favorite music, photos, friends and more. Elementary and middle school students could use an Imbee to discuss their favorite Sunshine State Young Readers Award nominees, or they could create trading cards—a feature unique to the Imbee network—for a characters in a book instead of a more Trading Card Designer on the Imbee Social Network traditional book report. Social networks provide an easy way for students to share what they are learning and gather feedback from their peers, teachers, parents, experts and others. Students can create a page within a social network or entire network to house all their research findings, images, videos and more. Social networks provide opportunities for self-expression, for building relationships, and for participating in
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communities. Social networks can be used to gather information and opinions about a topic, to engage students, to create discussions and to reflect. Students can interact with students having diverse backgrounds and experiences. A network can be created for new students, for clubs and committees, for special events, for units of instruction. The possibilities are endless.
Where do I start? If you want to learn more about social networks, go to the WebToolsU2Use wiki (http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com) and explore the basic information social networks. Then read some of the recommended articles and work through some of the tutorials through the links at the bottom of the page. You’ll probably want to participate in a social network before you create one or help others to create one. I would start by participating in a Ning and then creating one either for my family, a personal interest of mine, a book I’m reading, an event, and share with your family, friends or a small group of students or teachers. Nings can be private and Imbees require authorization so you can limit those who can participate. The NSBA’s 2007 report, CREATING & CONNECTING//Research and Guidelines on Online Social—and Educational—Networking, provides some recommendations for school board members regarding social networking that will work for school library media specialist, too. As reported in Simply Speaking at http://simply-speaking.blogspot.com: • Explore social networking sites. This is an important recommendation because most often we tend to condemn something without really understanding it. • Consider social networking for staff communication and professional development. This could well help achieve the previous point as well. It will also serve to integrate students and staff in the networking space. With just a little knowledge you can develop and use social networks to bring attention to your services and ideas. Establish one or more for your school library media program. Remember, there is no limit to the number you can participate in and there is no limit to the number you can create.
• Find ways of harnessing the educational value of social networking. This is a seemingly motherhood statement, but it could be worthwhile for teachers to consciously think of projects and assignments to be executed through networking approaches. • Ensure equitable access. Make sure all students and teachers have access to technology and appropriate social networks. • Pay attention to nonconformists. They tend to love the new technologies and feel less warm and fuzzy about traditional tools and techniques in education. They can lead you to the next great thing. • Reexamine social networking policies. Many sites have been blocked, but the may have great educational value. Reexamine your policies in light to today’s technology and resources. Come at social networking as an integral component of the education process, not as a diversion. • Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value. Educational leaders should work with social networking companies to increase services that are explicitly educational in nature, via informal or formal initiatives that highlight educational offerings. • Social networks offer ways to share with colleagues throughout the school, across the district or around the world. They also provide those networking opportunities for our teachers and our students. Not to exploit the potential of this versatile free tool would be inexcusable indeed. Will you join me in a Ning? Twitter me? Let me be your friend on Facebook? Share titles with me on LibraryThing? Chat with me in Second Life? We are not alone anymore!
Thinking of Using Social Networking with Your Students? Recommended Reading: • Teens and Social Networking in School & Public Libraries: A Toolkit for Librarians and Library Workers from ALA/YALSA. 2008. (pdf) http://u.nu/7647 • 30 Positive Uses of Social Networking from YALSA. A compilation of 30 days of posts to the YALSA blog about how social networking can be a positive force in teen lives. October 2006. (pdf) http://u.nu/9847
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