Social networking literacy competencies for Librarians

This is a summary of an interesting paper called "Social networking for librarians : exploring considerations and engaging participation" given at ACRL Conference "Pushing the edge : explore, engage, extend in March 2009.

Based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for HE, Joe Murphy (Science Librarian, Yale) and Heather Moulaison (Doctoral student, Rutgers) have come up with some competencies for the social networking librarian. These were informed by doing training for fellow librarians and LIS students in the use and creation of library services with social networks.


The social networking literate librarian is capable of articulating the nature and roles of
online social networking sites and their importance in scholarly research and communication,
and the information cycle.

The social networking literate librarian is capable of 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.

The social networking literate librarian is capable of critically evaluatinbg information encountered in social networking sites on the basis of authority, currency, bias etc. " and of passing this on to library users.

The social networking literate librarian applies ionformation in social networking sites ethically and legally.

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.

The social networking literate librarian is familiar with the diverse methods of
communicating with social networking sites and is aware of and able to apply the unique cultural
norms and expectations of each communication method.

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

The social networking literate librarian utilizes a variety of online social networking sites
to provide quality library services. They evaluate social network sites and choose which are most
appropriate to establish a library presence in.

They note
"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. This takes vision, creativity, and a constant thumb on the pulse of the social
web, its users, and their behaviors.

This is an important and useful article and amplifies much of what Sheila Webber said in her chapter in our book and takes us all a stage further implementing Web 2.0 to ourselves and our patrons.

Web 2.0 and library education

Hi, this is my debut posting on this blog. I wrote the chapter on developing library and information professionals for web 2.0, in the Information literacy meets library 2.0 book, and so I will be posting comments/ news particularly relevant to that theme. My main blog is the Information Literacy weblog and my Second Life avatar also has a blog (which is pretty sad, I know).

I thought it was worth noting that Dr Helen Partridge has won a prestigious Carrick Associate Fellowship. Helen works with library and information management programmes at Queensland University of Technology (QUT)management students up-to-date with the latest web technologies. 'The library and information world has been greatly impacted by Web 2.0 technology,' Dr Partridge said 'You can't turn around anywhere without hearing someone talk about their blog or Myspace page. My goal is to produce students who are not only leaders but innovators in Web 2.0.' "

Obviously that's a goal with my students too, so I shall follow this with interest. I am planning to visit Australia for 2 conferences this summer, and I hope to meet up with Helen, so I will report back on any discussions in this. That's a bit of QUT you can see behind the trees in the photo: rather more exotic than the average UK campus.