When I signed up for Twitter it was an experiment. I looked for everyone at MSU and in Starkville–there weren’t many–and “followed” all of them. And then they “followed” me. I started getting updates about when exams were happening (and what people were doing to de-stress!). Then MPBOnline and the Clarion Ledger started following me. Mississippi Public Broadcasting is doing some pretty cool things, it turns out.

Then I went to ALA in Anaheim this year and found some friends to follow there. I roomed with warmaiden who was hooked in with lots of cool library-type twitterers. So now I’m following folks that are doing really interesting emerging technology library-type things. And they twitter about them. It turns out you can get a lot of information–or at least a tiny url–into the 140 character micro-blogging limit.

Now I get updates on emerging technologies, news from public radio in Mississippi, along with a peek inside the undergraduate’s mind. And I got my shawerma today for lunch for just $3.50 thanks to willbryantplz.

So now I have to figure out if it can work for our library. What kind of information would people want who are following a library’s tweets? Who would be following them? Or would it just be an RSS feed we could put on our site somewhere with updates? The Clarion Ledger and UIUC Undergrad Library both do that. But what would our patrons want to know? Here’s a list of potentially good information:

1. When anything is closing early or closed for a holiday, etc.
2. When the network is down.
3. When we have an event in the library (?).
4. When we have an interesting workshop in the library (?).
5. When we post pictures on Flickr (?).
6. When printers are down or other equipment.
7. News at the library.
8. When podcasts are released.
9. Major new resources/databases at the library.
10. New blog entries?
11. Hmmm…?

Next…who would keep up with it?

Amanda