1. The BIG QUESTION: How can SNSs be used to positively affect school libraries?
SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES(SNSs)

2. YOUVE SEEN SOME OF THEM AROUND

3. AND PROBABLY SOME OF THEM YOUVE NEVER MET

4. THEY ARE WEAVING THEIR WAY INTO OUR SOCIAL FABRIC
And they tend to be more often used by younger peoplelike the students that we work with.

5. SNSs ARE STARTING TO BE USED MORE AND MORE IN SCHOOLS
Perhaps the two most popular SNSs right now in North America are:
Twitter
Facebook

6. Twitter in schools
Some teachers are using Twitter as a way to engage students to show their content knowledge and hone their writing skillsall in 140 characters or less!
I have seen a colleague using the above method in a secondary school creative writing class.

7. Facebook in schools
There is much discussion around how Facebook might be effectively used in the classroom.
Since it is so ubiquitous todayparticularly amongst younger peopleit makes good sense that teachers might take advantage of it in the classroom.
Much of the discussion around using Facebook in schools focuses on using it to engage students more in school in generalthe idea being that engagement tends to lead to better educational results.
See Kevin Lims Facebook Strategies for the Classroom presenation
See Reynol Junco and Greg Heibergerspresentation You Can Use Facebook for That?: Research-Supported Strategies to Engage Your Students.

8. SO, THATS EDUCATIONAL, BUT
As Teacher-Librarians, we are just that: one part teacher, and one part librarian.
We certainly can see how SNSs might be applied in the classroomwe probably hear teachers at school discussing it, we read articles about it, and we might even see TV news reports on it.
But the big question right now for us is

9. THE BIG QUESTION
HOW CAN SNSs BE USED TO POSITIVELY AFFECT SCHOOL LIBRARIES?

10. THE BIG QUESTION contd
The big question can start to be answered by breaking down answers into two categories:
1. SNSs FOR LIBRARIANS
This focuses on ways in which SNSs are helping librarians connect up with and share information with other librariansbasically a way to achieve uber-charged, always-occurring Professional Development online.
2. SNSs FOR LIBRARIES
This focuses on ways in which SNSs are being used to directly connect up with, interact with, and enter the lives of its patrons through a medium that the patrons are already usingTwitter, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, blogs, etc.

11. THE FIRST CATEGORY

• The following two slides include information regarding 1. SNSs FOR LIBRARIANS