Spectrum Twitter Chats

Next Chat

TBD - email spectrum@ala.org with suggestions for topics

Past Chats

• May 2021 Jobhunting in a Virtual Environment
• March 2021 Navigating Virtual Conferences
• January 2021 Goal Setting for a New Year
• February 2020 Volunteering for Professional Committees/Groups
• November 2019 Advice for New Library Folx
• August 2019 Museums, Archives, Special Collections
• May 2019 Navigating the Spectrum Leadership Institute/ALA Annual (2019)
• February 2019 Creative Works
• October 2018 Virtual Networking
• May 2018 Conversation on Navigating the Spectrum Leadership Institute/ALA Annual
• March 2018 Conversation on Networking

Tips for Joining the Conversation

Use the #ALASpectrum hashtag in each of your posts as you participate. A hashtag is any word on Twitter that starts with the “#” hash (pound) sign. Hashtags make it easier to search and follow the Twitter conversations on specific topics or during a Twitter chat. How it works is everyone agrees to use a standard hash tag in their tweets, ours is #alaspectrum for each of our quarterly chats.

Twitter chats normally have several moderators who guide the conversation during the chat using a Question and Answer format. Prior to the Twitter chat the moderators decide on the topic of the chat and organize a series of 5-10 questions to ask during the chat. The chat normally starts by introducing the topic and asking participants to introduce themselves. For our chats, @ala_spectrum will post the questions and a number of Spectrum alumni volunteer to participate in the chat under their own Twitter handles so that you can get to know the amazing people in our Spectrum Community. You can direct your replies at specific people (remember to use the hashtag) or reply directly to the questions posted by @ala_spectrum.

Once introductions are finished the moderators will commence guiding the conversation using their questions. Each question is normally starts with a Q and an number to indicate which question it is.

Participants replies normally start with an A and a number to indicate which question they are answering as well as the chat hashtag. Please use this format when responding to a particular question to help us archive the conversation accurately.

Twitter chats are a conversation — you can add your extra thoughts to anyone’s answer by replying to their tweet and including the hashtag. Provided the hashtag is included, everyone in the Twitter chat will see your reply.

Any tweets you want to refer back to later you can like by clicking the small heart icon next to the tweet.

Don't worry if you can’t keep up! We'll archive the conversation so you can go back and read it in its entirety.

You can participate even if you do not have a Twitter account by 1) sending questions into spectrum@ala.org around an upcoming chat's topic or suggesting topics for future chats, and 2) reviewing the archived chats noted above.