Hi! I'm a new librarian in Idaho

[Kim Leeder]

Hi all! I'm a new librarian in Idaho, working a split shift between a college library and a public. Let's just say I'm getting the full spectrum of experience! At Albertson College I've been trying to launch our chat reference service on Meebo (tertelinglibrary) while also maintaining our MySpace page and Facebook group. At the public library branch where I work, I'm the token techno-geek. Also known as The One Who Loves NetLibrary. Before moving to ID I worked for two years for the dean of the University of Arizona Libraries. I just learned about Ning a few weeks ago and am enjoying it so far. Glad to be here!

[Ronald Wayne Davis]

Hello Kim,

Welcome to the world of Librarianship! How successful has your Myspace page and Facebook group been in a academic library setting? What type of topics have students discussed on these pages? I curious to know because at my institution our student body does not have the mindset to utilize these tools on a wide spectrum.

[Kim Leeder]

Thanks, Ronald. Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of activity on MySpace or Facebook, so I'm not exactly the poster-child for advocating its use in the academic library. In my opinion it's primarily an outreach tool and the whole goal is to have student see us there and say, "oh, cool, the library's online!" Good for our rep.

[W Greg Taylor]

Welcome! I think you're find that Bill Drew created a felicitous network here...

I think that collaboration between public and academic/educational libraries is great. At my MPOW, I've been covering shifts at the latest branch, a combined public/high school library, and have been impressed. Facebook is well used by the high school students and the other librarians there. Let us know who you find working the split public/college library shifts.

[Kim Leeder]

The biggest thing to me about working split shifts is remembering that we're all libraries! I think it's easy to forget how similar our work is and get caught up in the differences. We should all collaborate more, IMO. We have the same goals, even if the details differ. Right?