Final class

Return to: LIBR 559M - Social Media for Information Professionals - Online Modules

Presentations

• Class presentations in Second Life

Course evaluation

• Student feedback - formal & informal

Course Review by Instructor - The Future

The term social media refers to a range of web-based applications that people use to socialize and network in the 21st century. Social tools are central to the social web and web 2.0. These tools position the web as a highly-social, interactive space, one that facilitates communication, networked learning and collaboration. Web 2.0 is a social, participatory, grassroots, global community, attributes that are critical to living and working in the information age.

This course explores the use of social media as channels of conversation (and information) and how web 2.0's underlying principles are changing the way people communicate. Our focus throughout this course has been how librarians and archivists use social software to connect with their user groups and constituencies. Further, one of the threads in LIBR 559M is how information organizations use social media to engage in discussion (and debate) and how they use those tools to deliver innovative services and programmes. (Examples include: blogs, wikis, RSS, social networking, social tagging, Second Life and Library 2.0, etc).

Now that we are at the end of our journey, I would like to discuss some ideas about the future of media and a research agenda; areas of interest include online performance, reputation management, over-technicization of our work and conducting research (i.e. evidence-based web 2.0) to support the use of social media. Developing web 2.0 strategies and policies for librarians and archivists within their organizations will be important too as an emerging or future planning and management tool for information professionals.

Final thoughts: 'bundle, synthesize, harmonize'

• What are your thoughts about these questions I asked at the start of LIBR559M?
• Reflecting on LIBR559M, what social tools have captured your attention as an information professional?
• What social media tools will have a limited application in archives, libraries and museums, do you think?
• What has this online experience been like for you?
• Can you provide any comments about LIBR559M, its organization and delivery?
• What should the course cover in the future? Is anything missing?

Go back to: LIBR 559M - Social Media for Information Professionals - Online Modules