EHSLibrary » social media monitoring

Didn’t need an app for that

Todd Vandenbark — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:04:40 +0000

In order to create a social media monitoring “dashboard,” the iLibrarian (a.k.a. Ellyssa Kroski) describes how to use Protopage.com to create a private web page loaded with helpful widgets — RSS feeds, searches, alerts and more. Below is a picture of the resulting page:

Kroski’s page includes widgets to watch for times when her library is mentioned in/on:

Twitter
LinkedIn
message boards
Google alerts, and more.

To watch Facebook, the page’s user needs to be logged-in to Facebook first, which means this page cannot be shared as easily as this librarian would desire. Still, it’s a great idea, and kudos to her for sharing!

How do you watch for mentions of your library across various media and platforms? What does/not work for you? Tell us about it!

Balance between privacy and the public record

Todd Vandenbark — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:50:41 +0000

According to the AllFacebook blog and PC Magazine, the FTC has agreed to allow Social Intelligence Corp to collect and keep files of social media users’ posts as part of a background-checking service for screening job applicants. The company claims it will keep this record for seven years unless you dispute it. Social Intelligence Corp. also claims it will run a new report each time information on a particular applicant is requested while keeping previous information only “to maintain a verifiable chain-of-custody in-case the information is ever needed for legal reasons.” And the FTC has agreed that this does not violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Writers have argued whether or not we do, or should, have a right to be forgotten. Tessa Mayes of the Guardian says no because it “degrades the concept of rights” and discounts the relationship between the individual and the society. Google claims this violates the objectivity of the Internet. And what about racist, sexist or other degrading comments by people running for public office: should those eventually be forgotten?

Last year the European Union proposed a law that would let users “sue websites for invading their privacy and would have a right to be ‘forgotten’ online” (The Telegraph). Could one person sabotage another’s job hunt by setting up a fake profile and loading it with racist, homophobic and violent images and writing? Social Intelligence Corp claims tells us what they will or will not do with this information, but will they provide free reports similar to free credit reports that are required by law so we can check?

Libraries have long operated under the premise of honoring privacy as much as possible. When a book is returned to the library, that patron’s record is cleared, and no record kept of what was read. The American Library Association’s “Library Bill of Rights” includes statements and interpretations on privacy that lawmakers and regulating bodies such as the FTC would do well to consider.

Where do you come down on this issue? What is not being done that should be done?

Suprising top topic in online discussions

Todd Vandenbark — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:58:34 +0000

What if you could catch a glimpse of all online conversations and figure out what the most popular topics are? Synthesio, “an international, multi-lingual web monitoring and research company” founded in France (with offices in the U.S. and U.K.) claims to have analyzed over 200 million online conversations, dividing their results into 40 different categories. The most popular category is “health” with 14% of the total. Below is a chart depicting their results.

What does this mean for libraries in general and medical libraries specifically? Tell us what you think!