Thing 7 - Communication Tools

There is no doubt that communication in this day and age is changing drastically - and it is definitely good to see libraries changing with it. We would be doing a huge diservice to our patrons if we did not try and find the most popular/convenient ways to communicate with them.

School librarians, however, are limited by the rules and policies of the district they work for. Usually, the use of email, text messaging, etc. is prohibited during the school day - so putting a lot of focus on such technologies would not make much sense. Besides that, the need for such communication isn't quite as important in a school library since the students are there pretty much every day (as opposed to having to travel to the public library). Despite this, I do feel it is important to give students at least an opportunity to have some contact outside the norm. I have included my email address on library webpages I have managed and encouraged students to contact me with questions, comments, suggestions, etc.

Web 2.0 does offer a lot of communication tools which are beneficial to the professional. Obviously email is unavoidable in this day and age and I have already taken advantage of things like mailing lists and listservs. These have been great ways to find ideas and information pertinent to my job. I can see myself delving a bit farther into this sort of thing and joining up with some library personnel web communities.