Is social media the opposite of traditional?

Thanks to @tinamreynolds for pointing me to this blog post on the adoption of social media in your career. The Gypsy Librarian makes a compelling case for the future of librarianship requiring the retention of, dare I label them, "traditional" skills including the ability to conduct a reference interview. He speaks out against the notion that we either adopt social media or cease to be librarians. I see many people who are capable and confident information professionals, some of whom choose to embrace social media in their jobs or CPD whereas some are either unable to use such technologies due to company policy or don't see it as a part of their role. Does this make them any less competent? Of course not.

But it's an interesting discussion and raises many questions.

The other question to which I need an answer stems from last night's episode of Spooks - What's Harry's favourite opera?

- Suzanne

Comments

[James Mullan]

Suzanne - sadly I don't know the answer to the spooks question - but it looks like you could find the answer online somewhre!

This is an interesting blog post you've linked to. A lot of what the gypsy librarian writes about makes sense. There will always be a place for librarians and information professionals who choose not to use Social Media but isn't there almost an expectation now that people do use Social Media and would this affect whether someone was employed or not?

Don't all job roles now have an element of social media involved with them for example cataloguing moving towards folksonomies and tagging etc, having an understanding of these concepts will surely be crucial?

[Suzanne Wheatley]

An understanding of cataloguing concepts... Absolutely! My concern is that new grads are coming out of uni without being taught something so fundamental. Being social media-savvy but surely there has to be a foundation from which to launch yourself online?

Would you require someone to have an online presence in order to recruit them to your organisation? Interesting article on the digital reputation in last night's Evening Standard (eek, can't find the link!). It's on p54 - "It's who you know that counts".