Session 5A
16.00 – 17.00 Parallel Session 5A
"Should We Be More Social? Law Librarians and Social networking"
James Mullan – CMS Cameron McKenna
James graduated in 1996 from Liverpool John Moores University. Shortly after graduation James took up the role of Library Assistant at Trowbridge College in Wiltshire. After completing his chartership in September 1999 he moved to West Thames College in Middlesex where he was employed as the Acquisitions Librarian.
Since 2001 James has been an Information Officer at CMS Cameron McKenna, where he is currently responsible for the development of Web 2.0 tools within the Knowledge & Information Services Team and is responsible for a number of other Knowledge Projects. James maintains his own blog (The Running Librarian) and is the current administrator of the BIALL Blog. As well as a regular column in the BIALL Newsletter on Web 2.0, James has contributed to several books on the use of Web 2.0 within Library Services.
James is a member of the BIALL Web Committee and is part of the Project Team redesigning the BIALL Website. James has previously spoken at the BIALL Conference in 2006 and Online Information in 2006 and 2007. In addition James has delivered seminars on the use of Web 2.0 by Law Librarians for both the City Legal Information Group (CLIG) and the Scottish Law Librarians Group (SLLG).
Outline:
Social networking sites have received a lot of press in the last couple of years but not always for the right reasons! Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Twitter - the list of social networking sites is endless and potentially confusing, but should we be using these tools and why?
This parallel session will look at how law librarians could use social networking as a tool for networking with both their peers and their customers. What factors stop us from using social networking sites, what might encourage law librarians to use social networking sites and how our use of these sites might be perceived.
The session will also discuss the history of social networking, some of the tools currently used, tips on how to do "social networking" and some of the issues associated with using these types of tools.
