The Bookseller.com

21st December 2009

Libraries populate the Twitterverse

18.06.09 Benedicte Page

Libraries are seizing on Twitter, the micro-blogging phenomenon, as a new way to reach out to users and to network with colleagues and the wider book trade.

An estimated 40-plus individual libraries and library services, including Manchester, Devon, Bradford, Edinburgh, Westminster and Leeds are now making use of the site. Many individual librarians are also choosing to register.

Twitter was a hot topic at the Library Information Show held in Birmingham last week, where consultant Phil Bradley highlighted its potential to help librarians communicate and market their services more effectively.

A recent open discussion on social networking held by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) was so widely discussed that "cilip2" briefly became one of the leading "trending" terms on the Twitter site. CILIP will now hold a training course, "Twitter for Librarians", in September. Caroline Moss-Gibbons, leader of CILIP council, Tweeted: "There's been a great response to the Web 2.0 session, loads of v good ideas, which we can trial. Keep them coming!"

One senior librarian said: "It's happening in a very organic and ad hoc way. Individual librarians are thinking, 'I'd like to let people know about an event or resource we've got', and while councils often have a Twitter presence, a lot of individual librarians are doing stuff on their own." Libraries can act together to co-promote events like Black History Month through Twitter, he added.

David Viner, assistant librarian at Solihull Libraries and vice-chair of CILIP West Midlands, said: "I'm following [on Twitter] librarians, booksellers, book prizes, The Bookseller, as well as the council and businesses in my locality I may want to make contact with. From the point of view of a professional body, we can get news and events out quickly and the immediacy is great."

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