Join the Conversation – Beginners Guide to Twitter

Here at Devon Libraries we use Twitter to keep in touch with our customers and give updates and information that might be of interest to them.  We love to hear from people who love Libraries!

Throughout February 2013 we will be using Twitter to try and encourage more people to join the library. The main focus will be on National Libraries Day (9th February) when librarians will be tweeting from libraries around Devon. If you’ve never used Twitter before, here’s how to join the conversation.

What is Twitter?
Twitter  is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and to read text based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “Tweets” In its simplest form, you read the Tweets of people you follow and your Tweets are read by people who follow you.

Latest figures (December 2012) show that there are over 200 million users around the world.

So, if you want to join them here is a quick summary of how to get an account with Twitter and start using it right away!

Signing up for Twitter is very easy.
To start, log onto twitter.com and go to the “Sign Up” box. You’ll be asked for your full name, email, and password. Enter your information (you can change this at any time) and you’ll get an email asking you to verify your account. Click on the link in your email and you’ll be asked to create your username.

Your username is the official name you go by;  it’s a unique name that people can use to identify and find you. It’s what you see after the @ sign (more on that later). Your full name, by contrast, is what’s shown on your Tweets. You can use your real name or a version of your username – for example, the username @funnyquotes9876 can use the full name Funny Quotes.

You’ll be asked to fill in your profile with some basic information.  You can modify this information at any time, so just start with some very basic details that you don’t mind sharing!

Once you have your Twitter account, what can you do with it??

You wanted to catch up on some news. So how do you do that?  First you will need to start following other Twitter users.  You could start by following Devon Libraries! Whenever you follow someone, all of their Tweets appear on your homepage, which is the page you see when you visit Twitter.com. You can ‘follow’ by going to their profile and clicking on the Follow button.

Tweets are displayed in chronological order, so as a new Tweet comes in (that is, whenever someone you follow sends out a Tweet) your homepage is updated. This is known as your timeline.

There are a few things you can do with a Tweet:

• Click on a link and it will be opened in a new tab.
• Click on the Tweet itself and it will be “expanded” (the image of a Tweet you saw earlier was expanded). You can see additional information when the Tweet is expanded, like retweets and replies.
• Hover your mouse over the Tweet and you’ll see links for you to Expand, Reply, Retweet, or Favorite the Tweet.
• Click on the name of the author to see their profile – you can, again, see information about them and follow them from here.

Strange Symbols!
When you first look at Twitter you will see that @ and # are used all the time.  So.. what do they mean and how do you use them?

Mentions @
The @, pronounced “at”, is used for “mentions”. If  you’re writing a Tweet and want to mention another Twitter user. You’d write @ + their user name anywhere in the body of the Tweet to “mention” them. When you mention someone in a Tweet, that Tweet will show up on their homepage.

You might want to mention someone if:

• That person was the source of what you said – often used with news
• That person did something related to the Tweet – often you’ll just replace their name with their username.
• You want that person to see what you’re saying – often used when you’re writing about a company, etc.
• They might be interested in what you have to say – often used when you’re sharing links

Hashtags #
If there’s one aspect of Twitter that confuses people more than any other it’s using hashtags #

A hashtag doesn’t actually do anything. It’s basically a tag, a badge, a label, that acts as shorthand for “this post is about x.”

Let’s say,  for example, that you want to know what is happening for National Libraries Day – how can a hashtag help you find the relevant tweets?

Log in to Twitter and do a search for #NLD13 – the resulting page reveals every tweet that’s been posted using that hashtag. You’ve just unlocked the hashtag’s secret superpower!! It offers a means for multiple people tweeting about the same topic to view and react to each other’s tweets.  A good hashtag will be: descriptive, short ( it counts as part of your 140 characters) and unique.

Now, you are ready to send your first Tweet!

A Tweet is a short message (max 140 characters) that any Twitter user can post. Tweets are the headlines of the web. A Tweet can contain any of the following:

• Text
• Links to webpages
• Links to images/photos
• @Mentions
• #Hashtags

A summary of Activites for becoming A Twitter user

1. Visit Twitter and sign up for a free account. Try a few tweets.
2. Visit the Devon Libraries Twitter  page and “follow” us!
3. Search Twitter for anything that interests you to explore how people use this tool.  Try searching for #NLD13
4. If you’re a library member tell us why you love your library using the hashtag #lovemyDevonLibrary

Summer Reading Challenge 2012 – Devon Libraries’ story

The Summer Reading Challenge is the biggest UK reading initiative. It runs in libraries throughout the school holidays creating a real buzz around children’s reading. The challenge is simple – to read six or more library books over the summer. The theme this year was ‘Story Lab’ – a celebration of story and imagination. Story Lab was an official partner in the Cultural Olympiad which allowed libraries to tap into all the excitement.

All 50 libraries and 8 mobile libraries in Devon offered the Summer Reading Challenge. Over 8000 children took part, 30% more than last year and almost half the participants completed the Challenge.

Exeter Library LIVE!

Devon Libraries and Cyprus Well (a charity which raises funds to promote reading, writers and literature to audiences around the South West region) are launching a new collaborative partnership programme – ‘Exeter Library Live’ – an ambitious programme which sees a range of exciting new events, writers, talks and exhibitions coming to Exeter Central Library.

The new programme kicks off on Thursday 29^th September at 7.30pm with ‘An evening with Ann Cleeves’, the award-winning crime writer who will be talking about her latest Vera Stanhope novel, Silent Voices, and talking about her life as a writer.

The Vera Stanhope novels have recently been adapted as a hugely successful prime-time TV drama starring Brenda Blethyn.

If you would like to come along and meet Ann, tickets are £5 and are available from the Exeter Phoenix Box Office on 01392 667080 or at www.exeterphoenix.org.uk

Look out for further events in the Exeter Library Live programme…next up will be the Exeter Poetry Festival from 6^th to 9^th October which will include appearances by Hugo Williams, David Constantine and Laurence Sail amongst others.

Summer Reading Ideas

The days are longer and the weekends more leisurely making this a fantastic time to read a book!

Whether you’re reading to stimulate your mind, want to loose yourself in a stirring adventure, or to learn something new, here are a few ideas for a perfect summer read.

A few tips before you start:

• Why not tackle the pile of books by your bed? Sift through them and get rid of the ones you will honestly never read.
• Look for books that will fit into the time you have available. Consider collections of short stories, essays or poetry if you don’t have much time. Choose some longer or more challenging books if you are going on holiday.

Visit your local library

Your local library will be happy to help you find the right book. If you have read everything by your favourite author, then your librarian can recommend other authors who write in a similar style. Some libraries have reading groups that you could join, and most will have seasonal recommendations.

Use Devon Libraries online catalogue to find out if the book you want is in stock then reserve it from your library or online. You could even borrow an audio book to listen to in the car.

Recommendations

Ask friends for recommendations. They may be able to suggest some hidden gems.

Have a look at the TV Book Club recommendations for summer 2011, for example:

Richard and Judy’s book Club is still going strong and includes podcasts and reviews of the books they recommend.

The Channel 4 TV Book Club has suggestions, book notes, summaries and author profiles that will help you make a decision.

LibraryThing  is a cataloguing and social networking site for book lovers with over one million members worldwide.  You can add your own collection and LibraryThing will come up with recommendations based on the books you already have. You can also find members around the world who have a similar taste in books to you. Checking out their ‘virtual bookshelves’ can give you some exciting new suggestions. It’s really easy to register – you don’t even need to give an email address to sign up.

Goodreads  has over 5 million members and is a book recommendation service. You can join online reading groups (e.g. Stephen King Fans) or browse the service’s top shelves to find more recommendations.  The reviews and recommendations can vary considerably though as they are added by members.

Amazon features books old and new, with reviews, recommendations, top 100 charts, and of course if something takes your fancy – you can buy it! The site also includes reviews of audio books, ebooks and the ability to download Kindle e-books.

Suggestions

There are also websites that designed to generate suggestions based on the books and authors you like.

What should I read next? has over 75,000 titles and is quite fast at offering suggestions. If you are looking for something similar to well loved book – this is a fast and easy site to use.

whichbook? is a quirky site. Instead of choosing from a book list or genre, suggestions are made based on your reading mood using a combination of sliding scales between the two opposites, happy or sad, funny or serious, safe or disturbing, sex or no sex.

There are 20 million different permutations possible, so if you’re not sure what to read this is the perfect solution to help you find something new.

Enjoy your summer reading!

Books from birth

It’s one year on since Devon County Council’s Library and Registrars Services teamed up to encourage more families to discover what libraries have to offer and the partnership has been a great success, helping families to get the most out of their local library services

Since the scheme started in May 2010, 572 tickets have been activated and 3,710 items issued on those tickets. In addition, tickets have been created for parents and other family members when the baby tickets were activated.

The books from birth scheme ensures that Devon’s proud new parents will be given a library card for their newborns whilst registering their birth. Parents just need to take the library membership card to their local library, and staff will do the rest. It doesn’t matter whether they go straightaway or in six month’s time and they do not need any ID or other documentation in order to join.

We know children are never too young to discover the joy of books and this is a great way of starting them out on their reading journey. The advantage of early book sharing means that babies and young children who have enjoyed looking at books and listening to stories with their parents develop concentration and stimulate  their imagination as well as extending their language and listening skills, giving them the best possible start in life.

Libraries really are a great place for families to spend time together, with so much to discover and join in with. They offer much more beyond books, from CD’s, DVD’s, audio books of nursery rhymes, story time, to book crawl and ‘bounce and rhyme’ sessions, and there’s also just the sheer enjoyment of sharing a book and a cuddle, and having fun together.

Compared to the previous year, the number of under 5s that have become members has increased by 4.8%, and with over 6300 new babies registered in Devon every year, this scheme offers an exciting opportunity to welcome a significant number of parents and children to the library service, who might otherwise not have considered joining. For more information on the scheme, telephone 01392 384315 or email
devlibs@devon.gov.uk

New VIP Club at Dartmouth Library

Last autumn Dartmouth Library, in partnership with Dartmouth Caring, launched a new club for the visually impaired.  Dartmouth Caring is a charity that supports the elderly and vulnerable in the community, providing a wide range of services including a weekly Lunch Club, a Memory Café, hospital transport and counselling to name just a few.  We realised that there was a need for a social club for the visually impaired, the previous “Blind Club” having folded several years ago.

We meet in Dartmouth Library on the first Wednesday of the month, at 2pm.  The Library is closed to the general public at this time so we can concentrate on our VIPs!  We supply everyone with an audio or large print book to listen to at home, and chatting about our reactions to it gives a focus to the get-together.  A member of Dartmouth Caring is always present to offer practical help and advice on a range of topics such as accessing benefits or getting cleaning help.  At some meetings we have a visiting speaker or health professional.  On April 6^th we will welcome Phylis Anglis from South Hams Talking Newspaper and Martin Pallett, the new Service Director of Devon County Association for the Blind.

New members are more than welcome, there is no charge to join and it may be possible to arrange transport for you.  For more information ring Dartmouth Library on 01803 832502

Hidden Treasures

Piggy enters the ballroom

The Special Collections at Exeter Central Library have been built up over a number of years by donation, bequest and purchase and contain some truly unique and fabulous items.

We are really proud of the collections and are keen to try and improve access to all.

Over the past few years we have been trying to develop a ‘presence’ for the collections and promote them more widely via our ‘Special Collections’ webpages and more recently by adding images from the collection to our Flickr pages.

We also have regular exhibitions of items from the Special Collections at Exeter Central Library. These vary in size and topic. You can see a short film of one of our recent exhibition “Down in the Forest something stirred…” on YouTube.

A is for Apple Pie...

Our next display will be w/b 28th February and the topic will be alphabets and counting books from the Devon Collection of Children’s books.

The Special Collections are made up of a number of smaller collections and include the Rare Book Collection which includes items dating back to the sixteenth century and covers a broad range of subjects including biography, political history, law, numismatics and herbals. There are about 1500 items in total. The Devon Collection of Children’s Books contains items which would appeal to all ages. As well as copies of children’s books from the seventeenth century onwards the collection also includes wooden alphabet blocks, a Victorian board game, fable cards and much much more!  A flavour of what we have can be found on our Devon Collection of Children’s Books webpage and on Flickr.

Want to find out more? Visit our Special Collections webpages.