Thing #3: Twitter

I have had a twitter account for a few months (jsizemo), but I have to say I haven't exactly embraced the technology. I've only tweeted a few times. I follow about 45 people/organizations, but I only look at their tweets once every couple of weeks. I think my problem with it is that I find it to be a huge time suck. Some people tweet too much inconsequential garbage. I follow some librarians and libraries who tweet great stuff, but then that's just more professional reading I have to do. And I already have too much!

I might be more on-the-bandwagon if I had a smartphone with a data plan. Then I could read tweets while standing in line at the grocery store. But as it is I just don't have time for it.

Libraries are doing some good things with Twitter. University of Illinois -- Urbana/Champagne tweets from their Undergraduate Library with updates on services and resources. NYPL tweets intriguing quotes from books.

I do think that we need to remember who exactly uses Twitter. I've read a study (I don't remember now any citation information for it, but I've got it on my other computer -- will update) that says that a high percentage of undergraduate-age students don't tweet. So when we create Twitter services, we need to think about our audience.