Twitter is a relatively new technology that functions as a hybrid between instant messaging and blogging.
For a quick video from the folks at Common Craft describing the basic use of Twitter, click HERE
To read an interesting blog post titled Twitter for Librarians: The Ultimate Guide, click HERE
"The New Twitter" (Social Media Mafia, September 20, 2008).
Chris Brogan, "50 Ideas On Using Twitter for Business" (August 20, 2008).
Caroline Middlebrook,The Big Juicy Twitter Guide.
Tom Boone, "I Send Pointless Little Messages" (August 17, 2008), in response Alex Beam, "Twittering with Excitement? Hardly." (Boston Globe, August 16, 2008).
Marie S. Newman, "What's the Point of Twitter?" (Out of the Jungle, August 16, 2008).
Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter (Adrian Lurssen or JDTwitt's list of lawyers, law librarians, law libraries, legal aid and public interest advoctes, legal news sources, law students, etc. he's following; originally posted on Septemper 9, 2008 with 145 law Twitterers listed; up to 270 with the September 19, 2008 update).
Twitter for Law Librarians (Lyonette Louis-Jacques, CALL Bulletin, No. 209, Fall 2008, at 38-39)(in the Members-Only section presently).
Uses of Twitter by law librarians and libraries:
1. Attendees twittered the 2008 CALI and AALL conferences using the hashtags #calicon08 and #aall2008 respectively.
2. Twitter can be used to keep up-to-date on new and emerging technologies and their uses in law libraries; Twitter is a current awareness and networking tool for law librarians. Jim Milles and other AALL Computing Services Special Interest Section (CS-SIS) members are useful to "follow" on Twitter to keep up with new technologies and how to use them.
3. Law libraries with Twitter handles: Yale Law Library (yalelawlibrary); University at Buffalo Law Library (UBLawLib). The Peace Palace Library, with one of the best international law and international relations collections in the world, is on Twitter (peacepalace).
The libraries use Twitter to post announcements to users about services and collections. Here's a screen capture of the Peace Palace Library' recent Tweets:
PeacePalaceTweets.bmp
4. The ABA Journal is on Twitter (ABAJournal).
5. WESTLAW is on Twitter (westlaw).
6. HeinOnline is on Twitter (heinonline).
7. JURIST is on Twitter (juristnews).
8. Trade Law News (tradelawnews).
Ways to shorten long URLs/links you want to share via Twitter:
TinyURL
Shrinkify
SnipURL
Is.gd
Other Twitter-related Applications:
Hahlo (mobile Twitter)
Ping.fm
TweetDeck
TweetScan
Twhirl
Twinkle (Twitter client for the iPhone)
TwitBin
TwitPic
Twitter Tools
TwitterBerry
TwitterFeed
TwitterFox (FireFox add-on)
Twitterrific
Twitthat
Comments (3)
Anonymous said
at 9:49 am on Jul 25, 2008
I liked some of the uses described in Twitter for Librarians, so I created an account and became a "twit." Positive comment: I found information about upcoming conferences and some interesting documents by searching for term: "law librarian" and reviewing those people's Twitter posts. Negative comment: After browsing some users' general Twitter posts (without using the search feature), I concluded that some folks posted far too many minute details of their lives through this service. If anyone has other suggestions for finding librarian (or other tech.) "friends" through Twitter, please share.
Anonymous said
at 1:54 am on Jul 26, 2008
Hi Jean! Folks have their Twitter handles/usernames on the Law Libraries and Librarians Ning network:
http://lawlibraries.ning.com/
You can also search for friends' names directly via Twitter, but the Ning listing makes it easier.
BTW, what we're having for lunch is a popular topic on Twitter...:-) It's possible to privacy lock your entries so they're not publicly searchable (I think). But Twitter is great for live, microblogging during AALL annual meeting programs. Twitter "friends" can immediately react to speakers, pass on URLs, books, and anything mentioned during a program, workshop, or meeting to other Twitter folks. The tweets for David Pogue's keynote were great!
Anonymous said
at 11:21 pm on Jul 31, 2008
I'm still have trouble figuring out how to make twitter useful for our library. Most of it is just people oversharing, although the Senate and House twitter feeds are interesting.
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