View from the Hill

Liberian Girl

Michael Jackon's sad, early demise this morning reminded me of the song Liberian Girl.  Many years ago in another life I met the Liberian President, also sadly no longer with us.

Today's news caused me to reflect how many times in my career I have been asked to find a Liberian.  Yes I knew they wanted a librarian, but it was so tempting to say I would get back once I had spoken to the Liberian President.  But then I would think - who I am to talk.  I often mention the Boys' Brigrade.  Not for nothing are there ontologists working on natural language searching projects.  That has to include natural language mistakes as well.

Yes, it's Friday, and the weather is warm and muggy.   Off now to find that ontologist.  I'll leave the Liberians til Monday. - Sue Hill

How well networked are you?

As the Stereo MC's once sang 'I'm gonna get myself, I'm gonna get myself, I'm gonna get myself connected' and after attending a LinkedIn course yesterday I know you really can 'meet' more people than you could ever imagine.  Mark Williams who runs the course for recruiters gave us a few facts: LinkedIn has 42million users worldwide and in the UK is growing at a rate of 75,000 people or potential candidates a month (46% of users are decision makers). 

The social networking phenomena is very much a part of our everyday with the likes of Facebook and Twitter but LinkedIn is a social network for business users and is not used to shout about how drunk you were at the weekend!

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool and in the right hands will prove to be a successful tool for recruiters.  My cynical side also knows that if abused by recruiters, it will further add negative feeling towards the industry as a whole and it undoubtedly will be.  That said if used correctly and ethically, people you approach will be flattered and connect with you, further widening your network and therefore making it easier for the smart recruiter to engage with his/her industry and be very much part of it rather than someone who is seen as 'a pain in the ****' who is only in it for the fee.  Join groups, get involved in discussions and politely approach prospective candidates or clients.  You must remember that people want to be found and the information they post allows you to target successfully - so give your targets a reason to get in touch. 

As someone who already uses LinkedIn, I came away from the course knowing that I had not been using it to its full power but was also safe in the knowledge I had not abused it.  LinkedIn should definitely be a part of your 'Recruitment Toolkit' but should be just that and not a reason to stop picking up the phone and actually talking to people.

So again as 'Stereo' MC's' said 'I'm gonna do it again, I'm gonna do it again'

 - Damon Thomas

CILIP - All of a Twitter?

Very interesting post from Phil Bradley on CILIP's response to discussion about whether CILIP has (or should have) any "official" presence on Twitter or other micro-blogging sites.

Bob McKee had said "The simple answer, of course, is no. In terms of "official" activity, cyber life is just like real like - if it happens in a CILIP-sanctioned space, it's official; if it happens down the pub or in someone else's space, it isn't."

Phil picks this apart thoughtfully and comprehensively. If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend reading his post. It raises important questions not only about the role of our professional body but also about inclusion, communication and the importance of adapting to new technologies.

Phil's follow up post on responses he received is also interesting.

Local news goes viral

Interesting post from David Lee King yesterday about the power of social media in making local news global. King works at Topeka & Shawnee County Library which recently took the controversial decision to restrict access to four books in their collection. King decided to tweet the board meeting and was surprised to find his feed sparked interest and comments from not only local Topekans but people from around the world.

His conclusion? That Twitter works great as a real-time information spreader and conversation starter. That people are interested even in seemingly local stuff. That … yes … even your small library board meeting is no longer private.

Twittering

Well unless you've been living up in a bird's nest recently your surely couldn't have missed how much Twitter has been in the news recently.  Its popularity is soaring and in most of the articles I have been reading there are three main twitters, Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry and Neil Gaiman.  What is particularly interesting about the latter two, apart from the obvious, is that they are both advocates of reading and libraries!  Surely this is a trick not to be missed.  Libraries should be able to jump on the band wagon and get some free publicity from this.  Stephen Fry's posts are so popular that when he posts a link the site he is linking too instantly crashes due to too much traffic.  I know of one follower who, after reading one of Stephen's posts about listening to Crime and Punishment, went straight out to do the same.

Would it be cheeky for libraries to post comments about their services, even if it just encourages one more person to use their local library?

Twitter Communications

The Israeli consulate in New York has set up a public, government-backed "citizens' conference" on Twitter, replying to comments from all over the globe. It has been very popular, this morning the consulate's Twitter site has 4152 followers, and at one point was posting a new comment, or answer to a comment, nearly every second.

The answers on the site come from the PR department, which aims to justify the strikes and make sure that there is detailed official information available on the web. Twitter allows notes of up to 140 characters so many of the notes on the site are quick links to other sites: videos from the BBC, pieces in the Wall Street Journal, clips on YouTube. But a lot of it is also direct answers to direct questions, in text-speak to fit the character limit.

It seems a radical step for the Israeli consulate to use social media to interact with the general public at a time of crisis, but is Twitter an appropriate tool for communication of this kind? On one hand the capacity for two way conversation allows people immediate access to ask questions but does the 140 character limit impose too many restrictions on the response? It seems strange to see matters of such gravity discussed in text speak.

Blogging resolutions

I don't generally hold with making New Year's resolutions. I think January is too cold and depressing a month to start anything new (unless it's spending more time on the sofa under a blanket and that would be a pointless resolution) and definitely not the time to give anything up - you need all the comforts you can get at this time of year.

However I recently saw a post to a New Zealand libraries list on what the author (Stuart Yeates, author of Open Source Exile amongst others) looks for when he is blogging. There were four things:

(a) A topic that's 'hot' either because it's in the news, because it's come up in the readership community or because it's something that you're doing (an event, milestone or interesting task). If the topic is new, shiny and exciting, this can't help but come through in the writing.

(b) A different take or point of view on the topic that your readership isn't likely to be getting from elsewhere. If you're repeating views expressed elsewhere, why should your readership read your blog rather than elsewhere?

(c) Some local resource, service or context connected with the topic.
This connects the topic not only to your institution / location but also brings what can be remote foreign issues home to the readership.

(d) Useful links. Once you've piqued someone's interest, you want them to be able to explore the issues and resources. You also need to support even vaguely controversial claims with a link to more information.

I think this is a useful quick checklist to run through when considering what to write about and I will definitely be using these principles as a guide in 2009. I guess that's a resolution of sorts?

Anything else you would add to the list?

A limbo of libraries

Two subjects that are very important to me joined forces yet again today - no, not shoes and champagne, but Photography and Libraries. I logged on to Flickr to see what people have been saying about my photos (they liked them, you'll be pleased to know!) and was presented with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation about libraries and an intriguing link. I followed it. It introduced me to the New York Public Library and a fascinating array of photographs. The Library is hoping that anyone and everyone will be help to tag the photos and that this will provoke activity and debate in this area of Flickr - The Commons. I've mentioned this initiative before and had hoped to see some more UK libraries joining in. Our NZ contingent here will be pleased to see The National Library of New Zealand is part of the Flickr Family.

Have you joined the Flickr Family yet?

Using Twitter for Business

I keep meaning to investigate Twitter more closely so I was interested to see this post on Karen Blakeman's blog on using Twitter for business. The post refers to Chris Brogan’s article on 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business which gives great tips on getting started and what to actually tweet about as well as ways of dealing with negative perceptions. Time to take the plunge and get tweeting?

Welcome to our team blog!

Having attended an interesting workshop at the Perfect Information Conference on "Social Software - Social Networking in the Business World" presented by the extremely articulate and charming Tim Skinner and Ben Walton of Cisco (hereinafter called the Cisco Kids!), followed by an excellent half day session on Web 2.0 by IFEG (the Information for Energy Group) with incredibly informative speakers and then using this new found knowledge to participate in a panel on "Web 2.0 - The Yellow Brick Road or Fools Gold" - at the BIALL Conference, it seemed time to emerge from the shadows and implement some of the different Web 2.0 technologies here at Sue Hill Recruitment.

We are all having fun making tag clouds with our own marketing literature and there is no doubt you will be seeing more of this as we try it on your CVs and Job Descriptions. It certainly focuses the mind on trying to achieve the aim of saying what you want to say!

We are delighted to add to our Web 2.0 wardrobe today with our new blog. Our aim for this is to be a place where you dip in and dip out and catch up on burning issues in the information world, news, stuff we want to share and occasionally just things the team want to get off their chest. We hope you will participate and add your comments when you feel the urge and that a lively forum will be the result.

Sue Hill