Mobilisation of Social Media - module 4

In my lecture notes it says that the following article was dense and lengthy. They sure weren't kidding. I had to have a strong cup of coffee and several attempts before I managed to finish it.

Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity, in First Monday, 14(1) by Lorcan Dempsey (5 January, 2009)

An aspect that I could relate to was when the writer said that "Students are results-oriented and value convenience". Well he really hit the nail on the head with that statement.

He also  said that "Socialization, personalization and location awareness becomes very important".

The article also draws the conclusion that there is a strong connection between younger generations and mobile communications. 

General developments in terms of consumption.

1.  significant resources targeted at mobile users- games, music, videos etc.
2. Social objects- shared interests eg photographs, movies etc.
3. Usability may be a less important value than the augmentation of real experiences. 

Space and Time
 Connectivity is important as a way of reclaiming time.

Social/Work/Leisure

Participation in a shared communications space blurs boundaries between work,social interaction and leisure.

This is a sore point in my household. My husband has a blackberry for work and seems to be on call 24hours a day. It can be annoying when you are enjoying time as a family and he frequently checks his emails to see if he needs to reply to any. In theory this should mean that he doesn't have a thousand emails to read when he gets back to work, but in practice what it means is that he never switches off from work, his boss demands his attention 24hours a days and there are no excuses for not being contactable by the office.

Issues for Libraries
Libraries need to look at how library spaces can support flexible, socially directed working styles of mobile communicators.
The library needs to get used to adapting rather than providing.

A library that I think does this really well is The University of Technology library in Sydney. They appear to be at the forefront of social media in libraries and it is a really exciting place to visit and in turn use.

Ways that libraries are already adapting with mobile-ready services.

• Reference/Enquiry
• Collections to go
• Presentation and viability
• Alerting
• Syndication
• Mobile sites
• Communications and referral
• booking
• Note-taking

Three issues in the management of collections.

1. The issue of management of print collections.
2. The issue of licensing external collections.
3. The issue of the continuity of personal and institutional collections.

People: Presence
It is important for the library to be more visible in the following ways:

• Marketing
• Physical Presence
• A 'signed' network presence
• Expertises

This was a difficult article to read, but well worth it for the insights that it offered.