Comments on: Who Are You? Your Public, Private, and Professional Life http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/ The official blog of the Young Adult Library Services Association Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:19:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Linda W Braun http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/comment-page-1/#comment-11786 Linda W Braun Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:01:11 +0000 http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?p=6057#comment-11786 I think about this all the time and decided to mix my professional and personal lives in my social networks. That means that I have library school students, teens, colleagues, clients, and friends on my social networks all intermingling. What makes that work from my perspective is that it requires I think about what I put out there for others to read. I am always critically analyzing my writing, the audience, and the purpose. If you knew the number of times I start a Twitter post and then delete it once I think about it a bit and realize it's just not right for some members of "my audience." I was at a meeting a few weeks ago and there was an interesting discussion among librarians, who were being asked to blog at their library, and some management staff. The librarians were concerned that they might blog something they weren't supposed to and the response from management was, "We trust you at the reference desk to know how to interact with customers and we trust you in the blogosphere in the same way. It's not a different behavior it's just a different environment." That put the whole thing in perspective. One other thing that I've been thinking about in this context is how careful we have to be about participating in friendships in open social networks. If we include a wide-array of people in our social groups online, then some people might be offended (maybe not correctly) by this. This is one of the reasons I love direct messages in Twitter, I can send a message to just one colleague or friend within the Twitter format and not interfere with the other parts of my social networking life. I think about this all the time and decided to mix my professional and personal lives in my social networks. That means that I have library school students, teens, colleagues, clients, and friends on my social networks all intermingling. What makes that work from my perspective is that it requires I think about what I put out there for others to read. I am always critically analyzing my writing, the audience, and the purpose. If you knew the number of times I start a Twitter post and then delete it once I think about it a bit and realize it’s just not right for some members of “my audience.”

I was at a meeting a few weeks ago and there was an interesting discussion among librarians, who were being asked to blog at their library, and some management staff. The librarians were concerned that they might blog something they weren’t supposed to and the response from management was, “We trust you at the reference desk to know how to interact with customers and we trust you in the blogosphere in the same way. It’s not a different behavior it’s just a different environment.” That put the whole thing in perspective.

One other thing that I’ve been thinking about in this context is how careful we have to be about participating in friendships in open social networks. If we include a wide-array of people in our social groups online, then some people might be offended (maybe not correctly) by this. This is one of the reasons I love direct messages in Twitter, I can send a message to just one colleague or friend within the Twitter format and not interfere with the other parts of my social networking life.

]]> By: Morgan Doane http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/comment-page-1/#comment-11785 Morgan Doane Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:46:21 +0000 http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?p=6057#comment-11785 I have some of my teen patrons as friends on my facebook. I just limit what they can see on my page. Facebook has great privacy settings...and you can even use them to adjust what you want your "friends" to see. I have some of my teen patrons as friends on my facebook. I just limit what they can see on my page. Facebook has great privacy settings…and you can even use them to adjust what you want your “friends” to see.

]]> By: mk Eagle http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/comment-page-1/#comment-11784 mk Eagle Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:08:57 +0000 http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?p=6057#comment-11784 I think about this a lot. I started <a href="http://sagittarianlibrarain.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow">Sagittarian Librarian</a> because I wanted to have a "professional" blog to hang my hat on, but I think a lot of my more interesting writing is "unprofessional." As far as social networking and work are concerned, our district blocks Facebook, MySpace, Twitter... you name it, we block it. So our social media policy is "we don't do that." ...Except (and here's where risky business comes in) I do. A student showed me how easy it is to get on Facebook from work (though I deactivated my account for personal reasons). I use a third-party client to tweet during work. I have a library blog for our website, but blogs can't be hosted on district server space. But I definitely struggle with how public to be in any of these places, and I don't think I would knowingly let a current student into any of my social networks. I think about this a lot. I started Sagittarian Librarian because I wanted to have a “professional” blog to hang my hat on, but I think a lot of my more interesting writing is “unprofessional.”

As far as social networking and work are concerned, our district blocks Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… you name it, we block it. So our social media policy is “we don’t do that.” …Except (and here’s where risky business comes in) I do.

A student showed me how easy it is to get on Facebook from work (though I deactivated my account for personal reasons). I use a third-party client to tweet during work. I have a library blog for our website, but blogs can’t be hosted on district server space.

But I definitely struggle with how public to be in any of these places, and I don’t think I would knowingly let a current student into any of my social networks.

]]> By: Lisa http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/comment-page-1/#comment-11781 Lisa Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:58:58 +0000 http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?p=6057#comment-11781 my last tweet and current facebook status is about raccoon urine. I kinda can hear the gasps but oh well. my last tweet and current facebook status is about raccoon urine. I kinda can hear the gasps but oh well.

]]> By: kj http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/10/15/who-are-you-your-public-private-and-professional-life/comment-page-1/#comment-11779 kj Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:28:47 +0000 http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?p=6057#comment-11779 I may be alone in this, but... I think we spend too much time worrying about writing policies rather than relying on the intelligence of employees to be reasonable, responsible, and accountable for their own behavior. "Policy" is taking over not only the work time, but also non-work time. So yes, we spend more time thinking about work than 40 hours a week, but we're also not at work all the time. I may be alone in this, but…

I think we spend too much time worrying about writing policies rather than relying on the intelligence of employees to be reasonable, responsible, and accountable for their own behavior. “Policy” is taking over not only the work time, but also non-work time. So yes, we spend more time thinking about work than 40 hours a week, but we’re also not at work all the time.

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