“Twitter, Tweets, & Hashtags… Oh My!” – Twitter & Social Media for Librarians

On March 24th, 2010, I was able to attend the monthly NY Librarians Meetup presentation on Twitter and Social Media at the Mulberry Street branch of the New York Public Library. The lecture was given by Nancy Picchi (whose Twitter handle is @islandlibrarian in case you want to follow her), a self-described “Librarian at Large.” “Nancy began the presentation on a humorous note by telling the audience that one of the reasons she loves technology is because “it saves me from housework.” Her talk specifically focused on Twitter, attempting to answer the question, “What is it all about?” and dispel the notion that it’s some stupid fad that will go away sooner rather than later. In this presentation, Nancy attempted to show us how Twitter has changed the way people, and specifically librarians, communicate with each other. She also provided us some of the potential applications we can use the website for our work as information professionals.