Inspired by the recent Digital Researchers event which I blogged about in this previous post, I was keen to provide a workshop to try out some of the social media tools and ideas which I learned about there. With the enthusiastic support of Emily Allbon from Library Services, and the LDC’s intrepid researcher Ajmal Sultany, we were fortunate to have an early opportunity to offer such a workshop. We were joined by a range of researchers and professional staff, some of whom had expertise in aspects of social media and others who were beginners. This meant we were able to share ideas and experiences based on current tools we use, but, according to the feedback we received, everyone took away something new from the event, both in terms of an introduction to specific digital tools and ideas abouthow to manage and use them.
The workshop focused on three core themes: connect, inform, influence. The presentation can be accessed here. We looked at blogging and microblogging tools, social bookmarking and referencing tools and networking. All participants were asked to bring their own preferred digital device so that, where needed, we could set up accounts. Tweets were sent, blogs created, social
Emily (and her avatar!)
bookmarking tools explored. Woven into this practical aspect of the workshop we discussed the affordances of these tools for academic and research purposes, including intellectual property, open access publishing, why to blog, building a research and
academic network, creating virtual communities of practice or inquiry and the advantages and drawbacks of developing a digital identity.
The feedback we received was uniformly positive, with one proviso that three hours weren’t enough! We hope to continue to develop these workshops and would welcome your ideas and input as to what aspects you would like to explore. You can contact us via Twitter at #CityLDC or by email at ldc@city.ac.uk.
Neal Sumner
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