Facebook
Utilizing social media is a great, free and easy way for
libraries to establish an online presence stay relevant to it’s users. During
the age of digital technology, it is imperative that we grab students’
attention in ways that they are accustomed to. Gone are the days of the card
catalog and the one or two dimensional resource base. Technology provides us
with various resources and databases. Facebook is a free resource that
could be used for promotion of libraries and programs in the library – which is
a great advantage of utilizing Facebook.
I took a look at a few school libraries that have a presence
on Facebook and even though they were similar in nature, each of them achieved
the goal of breathing life into their programs through their posts.
I first looked at the West Brook High School Library out of
Beaumont, TX. West Brook uses their page
to post updates, announcements, newsletters and a few pictures. West Brook has
a Book Club and it seems they use the Facebook page to communicate about the
dates, times and books they will read. There are book trailers displayed on the
page and information regarding their book fair.
I then looked at the Freedom High School Library out of
Chantilly, VA. Freedom’s page opens with a beautiful picture of their library
as a cover photograph. Freedom has many posts with links to their Twitter
account. On both accounts however, they are promoting their library in every
way. Each post highlights some event, project, program or author. There are
also post regarding important dates and fundraising for their library.
My favorite page is that of James Clemens High School
Library out of Madison, AL. Clemens also opens up with an awesome picture of
their library as the cover photo. The particular picture shows books on display
in the leisure reading area and several computers in the background. Clemens’
Facebook page not only highlights library programs but whole school activities
as well. It is apparent that the library here is truly the heart of the school
and many school activities are somehow in conjunction with the library.
Makerspace activities are highlighted, showing various creations that originated
in the library’s makerspace.
Lastly, I evaluated the Hermon Elementary School Library out
of Hermon, ME. Hermon. There were not as many primary schools on the search
list than secondary so I wanted to compare the Facebook presence of both types.
Hermon also opens with an authentic picture of their library on the cover. Hermon
utilizes many pictures to give a visual of what is actually taking place. There
are several pictures of a recent book fair and some of class projects in the
library. They announced the purchase of Kindles for the library through a grant
that was won as well. There is also information shared on the page that parents
and or teachers could appreciate. This
primary school library is in line with what most secondary campuses are posting
on their pages.
And so it seems that each school library has the common goal
of displaying and promoting itself while giving valuable information to
students, teachers and parents. However, I do notice that not many people
respond to posts on any of the library pages that I viewed. Some posts were
simply “liked” by 1 or 2 (some posts were not “liked” at all). And there is
hardly any actual dialogue on posts, if any. This is a major disadvantage of using
Facebook. Viewers may be either frightened to comment, prefer to remain silent
or may not agree with your posts. Librarians could ask for feedback in order to
get a better response.
Twitter
Twitter is also a good tool for Librarians to utilize with
not only communicating with students and other library users, but to also stay
abreast of the current trends in the world of library, educational technology
and digital media services. Several companies, gurus, groups and organizations
have a Twitter presence and several hundred followers. Any Librarian would find
it beneficial to “follow” some of these pages, as it would help to keep one
informed on all the most recent and important trends in library media services.
I have had the opportunity to follow a few gurus in the
field and recorded some of the things that I found while following them:
The Daring Librarian
The Daring
Librarian (Gwyneth Jones) is an avid blogger, and International Keynote
Speaker, and social media champion. Aside from promoting books on Twitter, she
promotes her Blog entitled The Daring
Librarian. A lot of her tweets are regarding updated posts on her blog. She
gives tips and retweets a lot of good, helpful information. I can also tell
that she is a fan of the Bachelorette
television series.
Linda Braun
Linda Braun
is YALSA’s past president and a learning consultant. Ms. Braun promotes a lot
of YALSA activities and ideas. She tweets in response to other educationally
informative tweets and retweets great information as well. Ms. Braun helps to
facilitate a Twitter group that meets in a private session. The next meeting
will be held on June 24th.
Kathy Schrock
Kathy
Schrock is an Educational Technologist and speaker. She will be speaking at
ISTE’s conference this year and she tweets and retweets information regarding
the conference. She also tweets to promote new technologies that are available.
Ms. Schrock has a website and blog as well and she promotes them through
Twitter. Her blog is extensive as she blogs about subjects such as student
engagement, technology support, BYOD and the classroom.
Buffy Hamilton
Buffy
Hamilton is a teacher librarian and tweets to promote suggested books,
inspirational quotes, thoughts and ideas. She tends to retweet interesting educational
information. She seems to tweet about her daily life (weather, teaching, foods,etc)
and hobbies (watching basketball).
Jim Lerman
Jim Lerman is teacher, author and speaker. He curates a blog entitled
4th Era, where he advertises and highlights different articles on or about technology or other articles that interest him (i.e. - his daughter is a famous tap dancer!). He tweets to promote his blog and to give tidbits of information from the articles on the blog.
