Thing 8: Curation Tools

I chose to focus on Storify for this particular topic. I've had a Pinterest account for quite sometime so I was already quite familiar with how it worked. I have to say its so easy to get lost on Pinterest just clicking from one image to another I could spend hours on it procrastinating (when I should be updating my blog instead!).

Storify describe themselves as 'building the story layer above social networks, to amplify the voices that matter and create a new media format that is interactive, dynamic and social'. I think this is interesting in itself, its such a simple idea, pulling in content from the wide variety of social networks that already exist and organising them in a aesthetically pleasing way. Whoever, designed this tool is most definitely a librarian at heart! I can immediately think of a few ways in which curation tools such as this could be put to good use by libraries.

Firstly, it could certainly be put to good use as a marketing tool. I'm sure Storify is used by many libraries to promote events such as author signings, film nights perhaps even book clubs by curating tweets, Facebook posts and Youtube videos and putting them in one accessible place neatly organised and easy to read. Storify could be used simply to compile a list of complements from satisfied library users who have taken to social media to support their local library.

I have found Storify very useful personally as a way of catching up with twitter chats that I have missed. The most recent example being the UKlibchat careers surgery which took place last week. I was unavailable to follow the chat on that particular day the chat was later Storified and this provided me with the opportunity to catch up on what I had missed.