Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Using Twitter to Build Communities: A Primer for Libraries, Archives, and Museums’

Review Fix chats with author Tina Marie Vella who discusses her book, “Using Twitter to Build Communities: A Primer for Libraries, Archives, and Museums.” Detailing her research process and the importance of social media on the library, Vella shows us what the library of the future should look like.

Review Fix: How was this book born?

Tina Marie Vella: This book was an idea that my co author Valerie Forrestal had in mind. She approached me about working with her on it, and I thought it was a great idea!

Review Fix: What are your goals for it?

Vella: We realized that there were plenty of books on Twitter and how to maximize its use for other professionals. But, when it came to educational institutions, like libraries, archives and museums, there wasn’t a lot of stuff. We want to fill that gap and guide those who need it to build communities on Twitter.

Review Fix: What was your research process like?

Vella: I grew to really enjoy finding good nuggets of information to share. Research is an adventure. I do it daily working at a journalism school, but when it was for myself, I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure I found everything! I quickly learned that was not realistic, and learned to hone in on what was important for the book. A plug for your local libraries, sign up for library cards and use them!

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this?

Vella: Don’t write a book and plan a wedding at the same time!

All jokes aside, I learned a whole lot of time management skills and developed my interviewing skills as I had to talk to alot of people about best practices. Crafting better questions to get richer responses, it is something that I hear daily while working with journalists but now I put it into practice.

Review Fix: How important do you think social media is to librarians?

Vella: The library profession is a service industry, we are there to serve provide access to information to our community. If we do not have a pulse on what is going on in social media, we aren’t doing our jobs properly.

Review Fix: What do you think the library of the future looks like?

Vella: You know there are entire conferences, books, etc… on this question. For me, the library is the library. It will always serve as a hub of information and adapt to the needs of the community. If we have flying cars in the future, there will be a flying library too! (actually, there may be one now! I’ll have to do some research!)

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this book the most?

Vella: Anyone who has an interest in creating a community via Twitter. The book will serve as a primer, and guide you to create a successful engagement strategy for your organization. We interviewed libraries, archives and museums, but educators and non profit professionals will also find it useful.

Review Fix: What’s next for ya?

Vella: I’m currently active in my professional associations, have added responsibilities and look forward to working on diversity and advocacy initiatives in the world of libraries. Attending my first Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (this is the 3rd one) in Albuquerque, New Mexico in a few days. First time in the state too.

And of course I’ll be promoting this book!

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Vella: The link for pre-ordering the book is on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Using-Twitter-Build-Communities-Libraries/dp/1538106051/

And we have a Twitter page: @twitr4libs

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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