Cyber-Event Organized by Biblioredes Takes over Twitter

On August 10, 2010, a group of people linked to libraries in Chile successfully held a 1-hour cyber-event for the Spanish-speaking world. The event was held on Twitter, aiming to raise the profile of libraries as institutions of learning in a digital world. More than 9,000 people participated in the initiative [es].

The event was led by BiblioRedes [es], a program of the Chilean Libraries, Archives, and Museums Bureau that attempts to [es] ¨transform persons into agents of cultural and social development through Public Libraries and cyberspace, and in that way, overcome isolation thanks to the Internet and new digital technologies.”

Jaime Quilán Public Library (Municipality of Pudahuel, Santiago, Chile). Photo by Flickr user fbar, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license by Creative Commons.

As stated by BiblioRedes [es], the goal of the event was to:

Promover a las Bibliotecas como espacios que contribuyen a garantizar el acceso democrático a la información, el conocimiento, la recreación y la cultura, todo ello a través de una de las mayores redes sociales del mundo: Twitter […] La idea consiste en conversar de las Bibliotecas usando el hashtag #biblioteca, hasta posicionarlo entre los “trending topics” (temas del momento) en Twitter.

Promote Libraries as spaces that guarantee democratic access to information, knowledge, recreation and culture; all through one of the most important social networks in the world: Twitter […] The idea consists in talking about Libraries using the hashtag #biblioteca [Spanish for library] until it is among Twitter's trending topics.

In the blog Cadaundas [es], Enzo Abbagliati, one of the organizers, added [es]:

Y para ello, nada mejor que llenar Twitter de recomendaciones de libros, de sitios web interesantes o de actividades que ocurren en las bibliotecas. Pero también recordar novelas, películas e historias curiosas que hayan ocurrido en una biblioteca. Además de personajes históricos y blogs de amantes de las bibliotecas.

And for that, nothing better than to fill Twitter with book recommendations, interesting sites or activities that take place in libraries. Also to recall novels, movies or peculiar situations that occurred in a library[,as well as] historical figures and blogs of library lovers.

As encouraged by Biblioredes and Mr.Abbagliati, participants shared links and information. For instance, Mónica Hidalgo (@skiken) recommended books [es]:

La triología d Santiago Posteguillo sobre Publio Cornelio Escipion Africanus, Las legiones Malditas y la Traición d Roma #Biblioteca

The trilogy by Santiago Posteguillo about Scipio Africanus, The Damned Legions, and the Treason of Rome #library

Similarly, Igor P.L. (@uneletras) said [es]:

Recomendando un libro, que me gusto mucho EL CURIOSO INCIDENTE DEL PERRO A MEDIANOCHE de Mark Haddon #biblioteca

Recommending a book that I liked very much. THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF A DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME by Mark Haddon #library

In addition, Contenidos Locales [es] (Local Contents), a “community of people that shares, talks about, and creates digital content about Chile [es],” invited people [es] to visit a library in the town of Camarones in northern Chile.

The event was not limited to Chile and it involved people elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. In the blog Myrna Lee, la biblotecaria…[es] (Myrna Lee, the librarian…), blogger and librarian from Puerto Rico Myrna Lee described what the event meant to her [es]:

En estas noches, he tenido pláticas intensas por medio del Twitteo, desde problemáticas sociales, temas picosos y películas no recomendadas. Ahh recordando el evento #biblioteca, desde ese día se re-generó mi adicción! El evento #biblioteca me abrió las puertas a América Latina, y España… para mi, algo maravilloso. Recuerden, vivo en un país donde miramos al norte y yo estoy aprendiendo a mirar al Sur del Planeta […] Voy conociendo, gente interesante, bibliotecarios 2.0 y más, comprometidos con esta vocación que a todos nos marca, que a todos nos seduce!

During these nights, I've had intense conversations through Twitter: from social problems to heated topics and movies that aren't recommended. Ahhh remembering the event #library. From that day my addiction regenerated! The event #library opened to me the doors of Latin America and Spain…for me, this was wonderful. Remember, I live in a country where we look north and I'm learning to look to the south of the planet […] I'm getting to know interesting people, 2.0 librarians and more; all committed with this vocation that defines us, that seduces us!

After the event, Biblioredes informed [es] about the scope of the event:

El evento virtual en el que además de Chile participaron países como México, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Perú, Venezuela, Argentina, Brasil, Portugal y España (país que alcanzó el número uno con el hashtag), fue una acción de marketing social en Internet por una institución, la Biblioteca, que lleva 4.000 años atendiendo a sus comunidades.

The virtual event, in which besides Chile, countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and Spain (country that reached number one with the hashtag) participated, it was a social marketing action in the Internet by an institution, the Library, that has been serving its communities for 4,000 years.

Finally, Mauricio Fino, author of the blog MaoLibrarian [es], reflected on the results of the event [es]:

Gracias a wthashtag.com y Twirus seguimos con alegria cómo #biblioteca llegaba a los Trending Topic Hispano de Twitter gracias a 9,798 tweets, 1,576 colaboradores (equivalentes a 1,399.7 tweets por día) durante los últimos 7 días, es decir que no sabemos con precisión (o por lo menos yo) cuántas personas participaron durante la hora programada.

También se puede encontrar que 42.2% fueron retweets (me parece una cifra muy alta), 60.6% fueron menciones,16.3% tenían multiples hashtags y 27.2% vinieron del “Top 10″ (es decir, ¿un poco más de una cuarta parte del logro se debe a 10 personas?). Si miramos en datalle ésta última, vamos a encontrar a 4 de los 8 impulsadores de la iniciativa de éste año. No digo que sea malo, pero creo que si debió aparecer una cantidad menor si la convocatoria fue tan ‘agresiva’ como para llamar la atención de unos cuantos de los miles de colaboradores.

Thanks to wthashtag.com and Twirus [we] followed with joy how #biblioteca became a Hispanic Trending Topic on Twitter thanks to 9,798 tweets, 1.576 collaborators (equivalent to 1,399.7 tweets per day) during the last 7 days[. This] means that we (or at least myself) don't know precisely how many people participated during the scheduled hour.

Furthermore, we can also find that 42.2% were retweets (I think this is a high figure), 60.6% were mentions, 16.3% had multiple hashthags and 27.2% came from the “Top 10″ (that is to say, a little more than a quarter of the achievement was due to 10 persons?). If we look [at the Top 10] in detail, we will see 4 of the 8 organizers of the initiative. I don't say this is bad, but I think that this should have been a smaller number [considering that] the official announcement was so “aggressive” as to grab the attention of a few thousand collaborators.

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