3. NSW Readers’ Advisory Working Group Public librarians providing readers advisory services Mission Statement Promoting enjoyment of reading and our library collections
4. Each month has a theme The blog has a post at the beginning of every month And subsequent blogs are posted throughout the month with reading suggestions linking back to the National Library of Australia’s catalogue Trove
5. Twitter handle @readit2011 is directed to the blog Read It 2011. The topic for November is #moreads for Movember raising awareness for men’s health issues. The topic for December is #summerreads.
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12. The use of Twitter analytics tools such as Twapper Keeper and The Archivist provide quantitative measures
13. Storify allows for the collection of tweets to illustrate different questions that are posed throughout the Twitter Reading Group conversation
14. When someone new discovers the Twitter Reading Group, as librarians we get a new, valuable perspective on the monthly topic and the new user also observes an active, borderless library service.
15. The Twitter Reading Group has no boundaries. Find a timezone that suits your libraries and join in the Twitter conversation for the rest of @readit2011 and 2012’s Love2Read Twitter Reading Group.
Read and Tweet: A Twitter reading group everyone can join.
The NSW Readers Advisory Group comprises New South Wales public librarians who provide readers’ advisory services in their libraries. The group’s mission is promoting enjoyment of reading and our library collections. NSW is a state larger than Texas with 7 million people. There are 2,300 public library workers in over 300 public library branches.
Each month has had a theme. These themes were chosen in conjunction with a calendar of events that allowed the working group to plan topics according to national programs or significant dates. For example, #oznzreads were held in April during which ANZAC day is commemorated (Australian and New Zealand troops in Gallipoli during World War I), #geekreads during August alongside National Science Week, #moreads in November in line with Movember fundraising.
The NSW Readers’ Advisory Reading Group blog http://readit2011.wordpress.com/ provides information about each month’s themes. Participants can tweet about their reading using the relevant hashtag for that month’s theme. At the end of each month there is a real-time twitter discussion led by the NSW Steering Committee members on the reading for each theme. It provides a great opportunity for social media engaged readers who use Twitter to connect with each other; and those readers who don’t actively tweet (but use twitter as an information feed) can watch the conversation evolve.
Readit2011 is collaborative development. There is a larger group brainstorming ideas at the quarterly meetings. There have been up to 30 readers’ advisory librarians from across NSW at these brainstorming sessions. With the use of post-it notes and the imagination of many each topic is decided upon. Once the brainstorming ideas are developed and organised the steering committee provides the blog design and writing for the blog and lead the conversation for the last Tuesday of the month wrap-up discusssion.
National Year of Reading 2012 – NSW Readers’ Advisory Group is organising and coordinating a twitter reading group for the National Year of Reading. Readers anywhere can participate, you don’t need to be in Australia to read along. Each month has a theme. In January we begin with: The Amazing Read, and then read through the year with laugh, think, feel, escape, dream, discover, question, grow, explore, cry and in December we will complete the year with Love to Read. It is a year of emotion filled reading.
To take part in the National Year of Reading, you don’t even need to use twitter. You may want to discuss your reading in a face to face group, write blog posts, or take photographs of it. You can read whatever you like to fit in with the themes each month. You could participate by reading twitter streams, blog posts, recipes, books or reading within games. This is a reading group for all kinds of readers and all formats of reading. Libraries can also use it as a planning tool for their calendar of events. Planning face to face reading groups, storytimes, displays, home library book suggestion services and almost anything around these themes.
And of course, there is the readit2011 T-shirt. As promotions go, if you’re library doesn’t have a corporate uniform or strict dress code, the #readit2011 t-shirt helps promote not only the Twitter Reading Group but it also promotes librarians as being social media connected, web 2.0 capable individuals. If anything, the t-shirt or stickers can serve as conversation starters whether you are in roving reference or behind the circulation desk.
The Twitter Reading Group is about taking conversations about reading out of the physical walls of libraries, using ‘third places’ on the internet that are already the site of much discussion and community. It is a unique opportunity to bring together readers, librarians, authors, publishers, library clients and potential library clients. The twitter conversations broaden our own perceptions of how to suggest a good read and validating people’s reading choices. In the #egoreads discussion on biographies and memoirs, celebrity magazines and celebrity tweets were discussed as read-alike options for the borrower who loves reading celebrity biographies.
The reading can take place across many platforms. It can be adapted, augmented and played with. The focus is on reading and the many different ways that people can enjoy reading. Several libraries using the monthly themes for their blogs and programs are: Blue Mountains City Library’s Blog Readers in the Mist, http://readersinthemist.wordpress.com, University of Technology, Sydney http://read.lib.uts.edu.au and Frankston City Libraries Blogalogue http://flsblog.blogspot.com/
Analytics of the reading group. The NSW Readers’ Advisory Group measures the participation rates of each month. There are months where we have a large, involved discussion with a variety of new and regular contributors to the twitter conversation. We track who the Top Users are, the Tweet and retweet rate, top words used, the top urls and the source. By looking at the number of tweets the individual hashtags amass we also can track the popularity of a topic and the type of people who are actively discussing the topic.
Twitter analytic tools may provide the quantitative measure but it is with tools such as Storify that the NSW Readers Advisory Group is able to get a qualitative measure. Creating stories from the Twitter conversation can be used for staff readers advisory training, an understanding of online reader engagement
When someone new discovers the Twitter Reading Group, as librarians we get a new, valuable perspective on the monthly topic and the new user also observes an active, borderless library service.
The Twitter Reading Group has no boundaries. This reading group can be used by any library anywhere. Just promote the tag and encourage your readers. If you want to set up another time for the online discussion, just let us know and we can add it to the blog (for example with the Danish or New Zealand time zones added in), you will just need to coordinate the local facilitation, but we would be happy to help with this. Join in for the rest of #readit2011 with #moreads and #summerreads and then join us again in 2012 for the NSW Readers’ Advisory Group’s National Year of Reading program Love2Read #NYR12
Ellen Forsyth and Vassiliki Veros look forward to receiving your emails.