Using Social Media in Libraries

Best Practices

Edited by Charles Harmon, Michael Messina

Publication date:

15 February 2013

Length of book:

114 pages

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Dimensions:

227x152mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780810887541

Since there’s no point in Twittering if no one acts on your tweets and there’s no point in having a Facebook page with a million “likes” if library use doesn’t increase, you’ll welcome the eight best practices presented here because they will help your library both actually do social media in a way that matters and do it well.

The successful strategies presented here range from the Vancouver Public Library’s innovative use of Twitter to the United Nations Library’s adoption of a social media policy to the Farmington, Connecticut Public Library’s fantastic work using social media to reach teens who weren’t using the library. Other libraries highlight their ventures into media including blogs, Pinterest, and social catalogs.

• Foreword by Laura Solomon, Ohio Public Library Information Network
• Introduction by Walt Crawford, Author of Successful Social Networking in Public Libraries
• “The Library in the Social Network: Twitter at the Vancouver Public Library” by Kay Cahill, Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, Canada
• “Beyond the Teen Space: Reaching Teens through Social Media” by Laura Horn, Farmington Public Libraries, Farmington, Connecticut
• “Blogging for Readers” by Robin Hastings, Missouri River Regional Library, Jefferson City, Missouri
• “Successful Blogging Strategy & Design” by Jason Paul Michel, Miami University Libraries,
Oxford, Ohio
• “Navigating the Virtual Horizon: Finding Our Way Using Social Media in Hospital Libraries”
by Yongtao Lin and Kathryn M.E. Ranjit, Tom Baker Cancer Knowledge Centre, University of Calgary Libraries, Calgary, Canada
• “Visualizing Information with Pinterest” by Cynthia Dudenhoffer, Smiley Library, Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri
• “The United Nations Library is Seriously Social” by Angelinah C. Boniface, Dag Hammarskjöld Library, The United Nations, New York
• “Social Catalogs: Implementing an Online Social Community as an Extension to Our Physical Libraries” by Laurel Tarulli, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Eight librarian contributors share their experiences blogging, pinning, and tweeting from public, academic, and special libraries. Case studies range from relatively simple (new-book displays on Pinterest) to labor-intensive (overlaying social-browsing features on a library catalog). Authors emphasize not jumping on the newest, shiniest services without considering staff time and commitment, and they discuss how each tool fits with the library’s mission and community. Project-specific WordPress scripts and Drupal settings benefit readers. Overall, the studies provide practical, tested advice from a range of library types.