Your Name and Title: 

Aaron Tay, Librarian

Library, School, or Organization Name:

National University of Singapore 

Co-Presenter Name(s):

Area of the World from Which You Will Present:

Singapore 

Language in Which You Will Present:

English 

Target Audience(s):

Public and Academic Librarians 

Archived Talk : https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.52FD5186135C7D8E38F684A4F...

Slides:

http://www.slideshare.net/aarontay/proactive-scanning

Short Session Description (one line): Shares experiences of scanning for mentions of NUS libraries online and responding on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like): It is well known that librarians are not the first people that come to mind when people want to ask questions. Similarly conventional wisdom suggests that for every one customer that gives feedback, many more don't and instead communicate their displeasure to friends. These two facts combined with the rise of social media which allows means that it is important that libraries proactively scan mentions of the library online whether it be Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Tips on Foursquare pages and more.

At NUS libraries, we do comprehensive real-time scanning of Twitter, Facebook, and other online spaces since 2010 using a combination of free tools. For example tweets are picked up based on a combination of keywords, geocoding and identity of users and the library responds using the library twitter account when necessary.

The proposed presentation will share what we have found users are saying about the library online.

However a interesting question that hasn't being explored is the reactions of users when they are unexpectedly engaged this way. While such scans cover only public postings and data, and many users will undoubtedly pleasantly surprised (as many are not expecting an answer, how many will be be shocked and feel uncomfortable that the library is actually doing online scans?  

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: Expanded version of http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-libraries...