NCSU Libraries’ Use of Social Networking for Engineering
1. WordPress NCSU Libraries’ Use of Social Networking for Engineering CRC Librarian Workshop The Blended Library: Blending Teaching, Technology and Talent July 15, 2010 Meredith College Orion Pozo Collection Manager for Engineering NCSU Libraries
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4. 5 SUBJECT CATEGORIES Chemistry Computers and Information Technology Engineering Math and Statistics Physics and Astronomy 3 TOPICS New Books News & Tips Online Resources
5. N E W B O O K S MINI : the true and secret history of the making of a motor car
6. NEWS & TIPS: New Articles, New Books or Dissertations by Campus Authors, Library Resources & Advice
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8. NCSUEngLibrary Sources: NCSU Libraries Web Site PES News NC State News Pages News Media YouTube Videos Blogs Twitter Retweets Etc. NCSUEngLibrary’s Messages: NCSU Library News NC State Engineering News News About NC State Engineering Local Engineering News
9. Fysh Clothing is a local company started by NC State students. On their blog one of those students from Civil Engineering, who is now a grad student in the College of Management, made a video asking Johnny Cupcakes to come to NC State & give a guest lecture.
Hello, I am Orion Pozo, a collection manager for engineering at the NCSU Libraries. Today I will talk about how Twitter and Facebook can be used with a newsblog as part of a libraries social networking plan, using examples from NCSU Libraries engineering communications.
In the past Twitter and Facebook were seldom used in in institutional communication plans. But in November Twitter’s “What Are you Doing?” became “What’s Happening?” And Facebook has broadened from a student social network to a tool that can be used for corporate communication.
Four years ago the NCSU Libraries Physical and Engineering Sciences Subject Team created the Physical and Engineering SciencesNews (orPES News) to disseminate NCSU Libraries collections-related information to the College of Engineering and the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at NC State.
PES News articles are tagged with one of 5 subject categories (Chemistry, Computers, Engineering, Math or Physics) and provide information to or about NC State’s Colleges of Engineering and Physical & Mathematical Sciences. Each article in PES News is also tagged with one of three thematic topics: New Books, News & Tips, or Online Resources. These 8 tags define the scope and purpose of the PES News.
New Books entries in PES News use a “Book Wall” graphic approach with book covers that have roll over pop ups of the full title and a click through to the online catalog records.
The News & Tips tag is added to PES News articles that discuss library services, campus author publications, or that contain tips on using library resources. Here you see a posting on New Articles by NC State Civil Engineering researchers. The link above the journal covers is constructed to search the NCSU Libraries Digital Repository and produce a list of articles by a department for a specific date range.
PES News is only one part of our social media presence. The blog, when coupled with Twitter and Facebook, reaches a broader audience. Here is the the Civil Engineering New Articles blog entry you just saw reformatted for Twitter microblogNCSUEngLibraryand posted on Facebook. Twitter reduces it to its essence: a brief description and a shortened URL. Since we don’t have an actual engineering library at NC State, we have not been able to create a Facebook page for it. So I use myFacebook page as a professional engineering librarian page. Facebook allows a lot more content so the link can include all the text from the original blog, a single image, and an introduction where I can list the Civil Engineering authors of the 7 articles. I offer Facebook friendship to the authors with a note that mentions their articles have been posted to the PES News.
Twitter’s brief & simple format allows NCSUEngLibrary to have a broader scope than the PES News. The engineering librarians can tell not only the library’s story but that of their users, the engineers at NC State. Just as PES News told the engineers about their new publications, with Twitter we can gather information about NCSU engineers and the NCSU Libraries from various parts of the Internet and send it out as a single message stream through Twitter.
Here is a frivolous example of an NCSUEngLibrary tweet about a College of Engineering student.
We use a URL shortener called IDEK which provides click statistics, but it is going commercial and will no longer be free. So we are in search of a new URL shortener that can provide similar data.
IDEK lets us know how many people have clicked through their URL to the original content. Here are some recent posts. At the top of each entry is the end if the IDEK.net URL which links to a detailed metrics analysis. Below is the original URL; and to the right is the number of click throughs for that link. The top three entries are reports on local news items. The 4th is the Johnny Cupcakes video. The next item is an NC State News Release on a research project. The item with 81 click thrus is University Dining’s article about the tent they are putting up in the NCSU Brickyard. The last two are from the PES News.
NC State on Twitter is a website put together by the Office of Information Technology. Currently it combines 94 separate “official” NC State Twitter feeds into a single resource that can be followed via RSS or Twitter. The source code for this page is available for download so anyone can use it.
Smart phone apps allow you to move the whole Twitter process to your mobile device. Here are a couple I have found useful for my Palm Pre: Picture Tweet works with TwitPix to post pictures to Twitter. And Twee allows me to Tweet to multiple Twitter accounts so I can maintain NCSUEngLibrary and my personal Twitter through the same app.
We use various alerting services to bring the news to us. Google and Yahoo Alerts search the Web, SocialOomph searches Twitter, RSS gathers selected blog updates, YouTube Subscriptions lets us follow NC State video sources. Town Crier is a College of Engineering Alerting service.
The tools and apps mentioned in this presentation are just examples. No endorsement is intended. With a little searching you will find apps that work for you.Twitter & Facebook can be Part of a Well-Balanced Social Media Menu. These slides are posted on SlideShare for your viewing pleasure.Thank you for your attention.