Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Facebook/Twitter

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.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 10, 2016 at 3:30 PM

    Hi Valerie,

    We've been in a couple of classes together over the course of the last two years, and like you, I too am on the final leg of my journey at Sam Houston. See you at graduation in August!

    I share a great many of your ideas regarding the efficacy of social media to promote the school library and also noticed the one sided "dialogue" that exists on many of the school library pages I previewed as well.

    I suppose that if we simply get the information out there, the feedback will come in the form of increased library foot traffic, event attendance, and contest participation. In that regard, the old adage is true: Action [does] speak louder than words!
    Nice work!
    - Mrs. Johtell B. Johnson

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 10, 2016 at 5:32 PM

    Valerie,
    After I read your post, I took at look at the Facebook page of James Clemens High School Library. It is a very good page. I liked the posts featuring their maker spaces and about their 3D printer. It looks as if this library has many activities for their students.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elizabeth GrossJune 15, 2016 at 1:36 PM

    Lots of great ideas here!

    ReplyDelete

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