LISNews: Librarian News

Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman is writing a new crowd-sourced short story on Twitter. Starting tomorrow at noon EDT, the author—and well-known Twitter fan (@neilhimself)—will Tweet the first line of a new story, and fans can continue it with their own 140-character contributions. BBC Audiobooks America will then compile the contributions—they expect about 1,000—into a short story that will be recorded by a professional narrator.

The audiobook will be available for free download at BBCAudiobooksAmerica.com/trade and at iTunes and other audiobook retailers before the end of the year. No print book is planned. Publishers Weekly reports.

BBC Audiobooks America reminds you, Gaiman will get the ball rolling, but the rest is up to you tweeters out there (#bbcawdio).

School Library Journal: Today’s new media tools are incredibly powerful communication vehicles that allow organizations to connect and engage with many different audiences. With more than seven million users, Twitter is growing at an annual rate of 1,382 percent, Facebook boasts over 250 million active members, and aspiring writers have started more than 133 million blogs. While the wild popularity of these apps has opened up a world of opportunity for developing brands and building communities, the social and extremely public nature of these services also brings potential hazards. That’s why organizations—including libraries—are developing policies on the use of social media for staff and users alike.

In fact, many school libraries are devising policies for students and outlining acceptable-use guidelines for blogs and other social media. Schools have a unique set of challenges when it comes to developing such policies as social Web sites are often restricted by the district or blocked altogether.

Full story.

We'd like to let you know about our new Terms of Service. As Twitter
has evolved, we've gained a better understanding of how folks use the
service. As a result, we've updated the Terms and we're notifying
account holders.

We've posted a brief overview on our company blog and you can read the
Terms of Service online. If you haven't been by in a while, we invite
you to visit Twitter to see what else is new.

Overview
Terms
Twitter

These updates complement the spirit of Twitter. If the nature of our
service changes, we'll revisit the Terms as necessary. Comments are
welcome, please find the "feedback" link on the Terms of Service page.

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What Facebook Quizzes Know About You - NYTimes.com advises facebook users that even if they themselves don't use a particular app, that the app. can access their personal information if a friend uses it.

Links for adjusting your privacy settings are included in the article. At the present time, the ACLU of Northern California is taking action to raise awareness of privacy issues surrounding Facebook applications, in particular quizzes.

Advice from a colleague: DELETE your FB apps NOW: At the top of the FB page, click on Settings, then Application Settings. At top right, it says Show: & a drop down menu. Select Authorized. This will bring up a list of all the APPS you have authorized to have access to y...our information. Use the X on the right side of each one you want to delete. If there is no X, that means it is a Facebook created app you cannot delete.