Twitter

You may have heard of Twitter (www.twitter.com) which is the latest "technology du jour" and is sometimes referred to as microblogging. It's been the rage of news organizations and political campaigns for several months. We also use it at AALS. Our Twitter section on our Web site is here: http://www.aalstx.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147&Itemid=430. I'm keeping it up-to-date on who is in the office and sometimes what we're working on. If you're interested in putting your library's activities on your Web page using Twitter, give us a call.
Individual messages are called "tweets". Tweets are no longer than 140 characters and you can attach files/articles to them.
I follow a lot of news tweets from KSAT (which has great weather alerts for our area), ABC and the New York Times. I also follow Library Journal and the American Library Association daily. But there are a lot of other individuals and organizations that you can follow like Oprah, Britney Spears, NPR, Whole Foods and the Library of Congress.
There are a lot of libraries that use Twitter such as Cleveland, Boise and our very own Boerne! Boerne sends out tweets a couple of times a week about their programs.
This article deals with Twitter and libraries - http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may09/Milstein.shtml. It give some pointers on how libraries can promote programs, send out changes/news to patrons very quickly and spotlight a particular book each day.
All you have to do to start on Twitter is to register for an account. It is fairly easy to set up and has a suggested users section where you can get started following individuals and groups. The suggested users tend to be celebrities and large companies or news organizations. After a week or two, I began to find libraries and librarians and followed them.
If your library is on Twitter, please let me know and I'll add you to my list. If you want to follow us directly, we are aalstx.