Microblogging applications such as Twitter are still relatively new tools in library services.  There were those librarians who saw its potential right out of the gates, but for the majority of the field it has taken some time to pay attention to it.  In fact it now seems like it is hard not to pay attention to Twitter – most major news and pop culture outlets have given it huge fanfare in the past few months, culminating recently as a cover story for Time Magazine.  Is it for real?  Is Twitter important enough to dedicate cover space, above-the-fold space, or even monitor space to?  I think the answer is yes, and that libraries have nothing to lose and a world to gain by realizing this.

Now, I’m not a Luddite, nor am I one to run blindly into the arms of the newest technological wonder.  I lie somewhere in the middle, and like many people out there I was really skeptical of Twitter when I first tried it.  I mean, what gives?  Does anyone really care what I ate for breakfast, what song I blipped, or how many hours of sleep I got last night?  Except for a handful of close friends, or the scant voyeur or two, the answer is probably no. 

Consequentially this was the attitude that I brought to the application when I first started using it.   I was too concerned about the aforementioned content, and not at all interested in what the technology was actually doing.  Librarians are just as unlikely to be tweeting about what they had for breakfast, as patrons are to be concerned about it.  But what librarians can (and are) tweeting about are usable bits of information that are directly related to their user base.  Forget the breakfast; tell me what new fiction hit the shelf, why the OPACs are down today, or if the hours of operation have changed.  I don’t need a whole blog post about it, give me 140 characters.  That’s all I ask.

It really goes without mention that the nature of librarianship is in a state of flux – and probably will be as long as technology evolves – but it largely has been, and still is concerned with the organization and dissemination of information.  Twitter makes disseminating information easy, mobile and quick!  I’m not saying that libraries should abandon traditional modes of communication with users, but incorporating microblogging as an adjunct to this can be an invaluable tool.

Lastly, we must consider the fact that microblogging and Twitter utilize SMS communication, which is a very popular method (i.e., texting) amongst the younger crowd.  Given this popularity and rapid growth it is conceivable that Twitter is not going anywhere soon, and furthermore that it or its offspring are likely to evolve into a mainstream method for communication. 
   
So, why does Twitter matter to me?  And, more importantly, why does it matter to libraries?  It matters because it is a method of disseminating information.  It might be relatively new, and some might consider it to be culturally degenerative but it still exists, and as long as it does we will encounter it.  Better to be prepared than to knowingly remain ignorant.

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