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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