Social Networking Literacy Competencies for Librarians: Exploring Considerations and Engaging Participation

Abstract

Based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, social networking literacy training prepares librarians from multiple generations for work with new and emerging social applications. These applications impact both library services and users in today's college and research libraries. Librarians must understand these new technologies, before making educated decisions about choosing if or how to implement them in library services they offer. By describing and defining the general concepts for engaging these technologies, the authors suggest practical methods for training library practitioners and students in these participation-rich online competencies. The authors also describe their experiences creating new library services based on social networking literacy, and in training librarians in these competencies. The librarian in charge of implementing social networking services in the Yale Science Libraries since 2007 will share his experiences, and will describe the ways in which these competencies were shared with LIS students at Rutgers University in Spring 2008.