Archive for June, 2011

It’s Social Media Day! Are You Connected With Your Government?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

A comprehensive listing of state agency social media offeringsToday, June 30, has been designated as “Social Media Day.” By who? People on social media, apparently. Actually, the celebration is being led by mashable.com, a site that has become a portal for news about social media and a community gathering place for those who use social media. That includes us.

Here at the GIC, we advocate the use of all possible communications tools to ensure that Delawareans have “convenient and comprehensive access to government information.” Seriously, it’s in state law that we have to do this. Luckily, we really enjoy our jobs, particularly when we get to work with you guys to find new ways to increase communication.

Lately, we’ve been working to expand state agency use of various social media tools. Delaware’s government is very active on facebook, twitter, blogs, flickr and youtube. There are long lists of agencies using each of these. We’re very proud of how well Delaware government uses social media.

But we bet we can do more. And you can help. Tell us, via comments here or on twitter (using #de_gov_sm):

  • What existing Delaware government social media channel is most useful to you?
  • What agency do you wish was using social media?
  • What information do you need that is not now available via social media?

We’re always looking for ways to improve Delaware.gov but we can’t (and really shouldn’t) do so without hearing from you.

Posted in Blog Posts, Online Services, Social Media, Tools | 1 Comment »

Delaware’s Library Portal Makes News

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Delaware's Library Portal, www.lib.de.usThe News Journal featured the web portal of the Delaware State Library System this weekend. Saturday’s story, Your library comes home, focuses on how a selection of patrons use the portal’s “Ebrary” of digital publications in their personal and professional lives. It builds from those small portraits to a broad mural of a statewide network of libraries joined together both functionally and in an on-line “meta-library.”

The Delaware Libraries portal, lib.de.us, is the product of a partnership known as “the Delaware Library Catalog Consortium” established to help bring library resources to the people of the First State:

… to provide enhanced access for the residents of Delaware to information through a single online library database. This catalog enables Delaware Library Card holders to use any of the participating libraries. In addition this provides a broader, more extensive collection of materials and resources and economy of scale savings for member libraries. The Delaware Division of Libraries (DDL) in cooperation with Delaware libraries will strive to offer Delaware’s residents access to a full range of information, materials and resources.

The portal includes ways for patrons to manage their relationship with Delaware’s public libraries, information about those libraries, live on-line interaction with librarians, access to the state’s full catalog of physical materials and a growing collection of eBooks (Delaware’s “Ebrary”), and more.

Posted in Blog Posts, Online Services, Tools, Websites | No Comments »

It’s Been a Very Social Year on Delaware.Gov

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Image of the delaware.gov homepageIt was one year ago this week that an updated, social-media focused delaware.gov was rolled out by the Delaware Government Information Center (GIC).

The newly designed state web portal included the usual useful information about what’s special in the First State and how to contact state agencies and find information, along with information targeted to businesses, employees, and citizens at large.

But the new design went a few steps further, incorporating live, continuously updated windows into the social media life of Delaware government. These include streams from facebook,  YouTube, twitter, flickr, and the growing collection of state-government blogs.

For the first time, citizens could come to one place and watch a comprehensive, live view of what their government is doing for them, what events are happening, and what their fellow Delawareans are finding and photographing around the state. Delaware’s portal, often at the forefront of E-Government, was leading the way again.

The newly social delaware.gov debuted into a revolution of social media use by Delaware’s political, social and business leaders – exemplified by the active #netDE community on twitter. The state’s strong support for social media as a tool for communication between citizens and the government that serves them helped boost the state social media growth.

Today, a growing list of state agencies are adopting social media tools and providing information directly to the citizens via twitter, facebook and the like and through the delaware.gov portal.

As we move forward to the next update of the state’s portal, the GIC is reading citizen input on social media with great interest. We’re looking for ideas — how can we serve our clients (family, friends, neighbors) better in the future? What E-Government services would you like to see?

Leave a comment here or spark a discussion in the social media world. We’ll be listening with great interest.

Posted in Blog Posts, Features, Online Services, Social Media, Tools, Websites | 4 Comments »