Social Networking Takes Over The World!

We all kind of had a hunch about this, didn't we? Now we have the studies to prove it.

Study Shows Social Media Use on the Rise

Whoa baby! Social Media appears to have moved beyond the Early Adopters and infiltrated the collective. It isn't just the kids anymore. After all, how many readers out there are over 26 and have a Facebook account?

For marketing, social media is a whole new venue. And the rules are way different than the old "interruptive" model. Brand yourself and get yourself out there. Make your social content something that makes the reader/viewer want to click back to your brand. Engage and think globally about it.

Don't forget the vicarious consumption inherent in the Expectation Economy discussed in Trendwatching. Opinions are out there. Your users are reading those opinions and makind decisions based on them. Know them. Grab them and use them to market your library and improve services.

Stephen Abram sums it up:
Half of U.S. adults use social media
from Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen
According to study, half of U.S. adults use social media.
Wow! That is, they do according to the latest findings from Universal McCann's "Media in Mind" study. In this particular study "social media" includes text messaging, blogging and social networking. These three technologies combined are used by 50% of U.S. adults for communication purposes.

1 out of 10 U.S. adults now publish blogs (up from 5% last year)
1 out of 5 18-34-year olds publish blogs (up from 10% last year)
22% of U.S. adults use IM (up from 9% last year)
21% 18-34-year olds use IM (up from 14% last year)
57% have joined a Social Network, now the primary mode of creating and sharing content
23% of social network users have installed an application
Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration
73% have read a blog
34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog

Read the complete presentation/report (80 page PDF) here.

Interesting. Right or wrong, it's still obviously growing in interesting ways.

Kudos and Concerns

Concerns

Random House Pulls Book About Muhammad's Wife
from NPR Topics: Authors
The reasons for this are just a bit scary. Of course no one wants to insult another's religious beliefs. Do we also want to stop the free discussion of ideas? Why pull this one when Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses was universally defended? Puzzling. Those of you out in Libraryschoolland might find a good topic for a paper in this one.

See also:
The Jewel of Medina is Now On Sale - No, Wait. Nevermind.
from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books


Kudos
One Man, One Year, One Mission: Read The OED
from NPR Topics: Authors
We're all about reading here and we, for some, are glad to see this man safely on his way!

Experts Uncover A Painting Van Gogh Covered Up
from NPR Topics: Arts & Culture
The question that remains is this: How can we view both at once?

Coming Up in Health

Nice article about what to look for in health publishing in upcoming months.

"Health Front and Center." Publisher's Weekly 8/4/08 p. 27

The market indicates people are very concerned about health care and costs. People are also feeling overwhelmed by unending advice on staying well, what to eat, etc. They are looking for one easy "prescription" in a book.

Also: General information on topics and coping

Concern for the well-being of returning Iraqi veterans has put PTSD and brain trauma books near the top of the list for demand

Other areas:
Alzheimer's
Longevity and Aging
Cancer
Women's Health

Great group of new RA tools!

Wow did Sarah Houghton-Jan hit it on the head with this one. Tons of stuff to explore here!

Sarah's Reference Warehouse: Readers Advisory
from LibrarianInBlack by Sarah Houghton-Jan

Football Season is Looming

The heck with the Olympics. Every red-blooded American knows football season is upon us. Here's an interesting tidbit from

(title unknown)
from The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Cindy Orr
"Tyndale’s Christian Football BooksTyndale House has released its third football-related title that seems headed to the top of the regular bestseller lists. Jim Tressel, the coach of Ohio State’s football team, wrote The Winners Manual, which Tyndale hopes will sell as well as Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength, and Deanna Favre’s Don’t Bet Against Me."

We're not sure exactly what this signifies but we're hoping it means that language of viewers across the country will improve. :-)

Kinda Defined: Beach Reads

We here at librarylandroundup have previously confessed to cluelessness as to just what exactly a "Beach Read" is. We suspected, and still maintain, that the beach/vacation/summer read for an adult could include leisurely reads. After some study of the summer movie season and book bestsellers, we have come to the conclusion that, for the majority of readers, summer/beach/vacation reading is somewhat similar. Whether this is due to the marketing of books and movies during summer or is somehow an actual human desire remains unclear.

Using Joyce Sarick's cross-genre RA framework and Nancy Pearl's "doorways" theory, we have come to the following conclusions:

Adrenaline: Fast-paced, thrilling, a real page-turner.

Intellect: Could be speculative, as in sf/fantasy/crossover or it could be escapist as in historicals or romance or a lot of westerns

Feeling: Lots of it. Thrills, chills, inspiration, love, etc.

Landscape: May or may not be important

Doorways:
The main doorways would be Adrenaline and Feeling. "Give me a heart-pounding, emotion-provoking book, please!"

Minor doorways would be Intellect and Landscape. "By the way, I just want an escape and I like a lot of description of the scenery."

That's it folks. Librarylandroundup sits corrected!