Topsy offers several categories to search: links, tweets, photos, videos, influencers and everything. I chose to search 'everything' and type 'public library' into the search box. I leave off 'communities' since I am searching Twitter. I figure that the social media aspect of my search covers the 'community' part of my search topic.
I get a surprising number of hits--there have been 8,296 tweets about public libraries in the last seven days!
I decide to limit my search to videos.
It looks like vines are included with these results as well, so I will need to make sure to watch for them as I go through the results.
My Best Result:
What I learned, Content:
It took me awhile to go through the results. I picked as my best hit a re-tweet from the Friends of the FCPL.
It's a cute YouTube video from the Nashville Public Library. In an effort to encourage people to get a library card, NPL staff sang "All About the Books" to the tune of Meghan Trainor's "All About that Bass". It's done in the style of a Jimmy Fallon and The Roots skit on The Tonight Show. This video is really neat: it shows how popular culture impacts public library and it shows a way that a public library can reach out to it's patrons.
What I learned, Searching:
It's important to keep in mind that Topsy searches social media. This means anything can get returned in users searches. Users should be aware that what they get back may not be what they are looking for. Twitter users are adding the tag 'public library' to their tweets, but it may not accurately describe the tweet! Users should take into consideration the time it will take to sort out the 'good' results from the not so good.
Reflection:
Searching Topsy was fun. I feel like it gave perspective to the community aspect of my topic, whereas before, I was only dealing with the public library aspect. It took some time to go through the results and weed out the ones that didn't fit. One Twitter user posted a video about her trip to a farmer's market and asked her followers to view it by saying "Check it out like a public library book!". It had nothing to do with a public library, but because the words were used, it turned up in my search.
Reference:
Topsy. 2014. Topsy. http://topsy.com/
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