Micro-blogging for science and technology libraries

The role played by micro-blogging for science and technology libraries is discussed. Micro-blogs are social networks for broadcasting news that have a significantly short character limit similar to that of text messaging. Popular micro-blog clients, such as Twitter and Pownce are increasingly offering a short-winded platform for sharing information with patrons by combining the interaction and push technology of blogs with the mobility of text messaging. Pownce allows file sharing and makes it possible to add tags to posts and to post videos. These tools are suitable for library announcements and allow users to post news such as special events holiday hours, exhibits, new book arrivals, updated resources or reminders about important resources, instruction sessions, and new reference services.