Thing 11: Academia.edu
I’ve come across Academia.edu profiles through Google, and I’ve found it really helpful to see what’s been done by early career researchers whose work might not be visible in standard bibliographies yet. In terms of my own use, Academia.edu would be useful if I published a lot of articles. But I don’t. I’d be really interested to know if any librarians do use it though, as it might be an interesting way to connect with academic colleagues.
Thing 12: LinkedIn
LinkedIn dismays me. As an aspiring librarian, I should be all about getting information out there and connecting with people, but the idea of starting another social media profile terrifies me. Especially as I feel as though I have few real world contacts to draw upon as yet.
The etiquette! The pressure to invest in it and be an active member of an online community! And the worry that it’ll become a game of metrics one-upmanship. It would be easy to worry about how many people look at my profile (which is just weird), how many people want to connect with me, how many people are seen to endorse my skills…what if I get more endorsements for photocopying than leadership skills? Does that say something about me?
From what I’ve seen (and this may well be because I don’t have any friends connections of my own), it’s best suited to inspirational corporate “thought leaders”. Â According to my email updates, LinkedIn is full to the brim with them. They can help me slim down my inbox, fatten up my salary and change my attitude towards change. Urgh.
I’m not even sure if there are that many librarians that use LinkedIn religiously . I’ve had a browse through the discussions on the CILIP group, but it seems a little quiet. I think I’ll use it as a CV hosting website, rather than investing in the discussion features.
foxingclever 