A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries
A-active, in order for your library patrons to view you as being serious about your social networking and for it to work for you and your library, you need to use it on a regular basis.
B- Blog, does your library have a blog. This is a great way for you to offer value and content for your library and it has become the standard for libraries to have one.
C-Content- just like businesses have to offer valuable content in order to market their businesses, your library needs to offer valuable content that your patrons will read and appreciate.
Direction- What are you planning to accomplish for your library with social networking?
Ebooks- You can share these on social networking to increase their exposure.
F-Facebook, having a presence on facebook with a fan page or a group is a must. Facebook is so popular now that it is expected.
G-Good Reads, Do your patrons need some ideas of what to read? Help them out with Good Reads.
H-Help- relying on only one or two people to build your library’s social networking presence will not work. It needs to be a whole team effort on behalf of your entire library staff.
I-Interesting- Are your library’s social networking profiles and content interesting? They had better be if you want them to work for you.
J-Joomla- an open source web design program that can make editing your library website and adding in social networking features much easier.
K-Koha the best open source program for your library catalog, you can also integrate social networking into this tool.
L-Library Thing- use this great site to share your library collections with others.
M- Mobile, more and more your library’s social networking needs to be able to be accessed via mobile devices. There are also more options than ever for making this a reality.
N-Ning this free social networking site allows you to create a social networking specifically for your library.
O-Open Source- use these programs and tools to enhance your social networking experience and to help your library save money.
P-Podcasting- this is a great way to share interviews and valuable audio tips with your library’s audience.
R-Reference- you may think that offering reference services via social networking is impossible but the reality is that so many of your patrons use facebook, twitter and youtube that you can offer the answers to frequently asked questions as a form of reference services on these sites.
S-Slideshare, this heavy traffic and awesome social networking site lets you share power point presentations. Use this site to embed your presentations and promote them on other sites as well.
T-Text messaging- Is your library using it yet?
U-Ustream- use this program to broadcast live to your library patrons.
V-Video whether on youtube or elsewhere, use video to enhance and engage with your users via social networking.
W-Widgets- many database vendors provide these and you can use them in many ways to promote your library resources.
Y- Youth- using social networking allows you to connect on a deeper level with young people.
Z-zeal, is your library staff exciting about the possibilities that social networking can offer your library? If not, you will struggle to make it work for you.
Retrieved from
Consider this advice in terms of a library and information agency that you know (as an employee or user). Select advice from five (5) letters of this A-Z list and consider how these may be applied to this library to help it embrace a Library 2.0 ethos. Write up your findings as a post (of no more than 350 words in your OLJ).
As an employee of the Department of Education in a primary school library some of the things listed on the blog would be inappropriate to use. Taking this into consideration I have chosen the five following areas to discuss.
Blog – By using a blog in our library we will be able to extend the library beyond the school walls and into the homes of the students. We will be able to discuss the different literature genres that are popular among the students. We will also be able to use this medium as a way of broadening the genres that the students currently read.
Ebooks- Ebooks are definitely the way of the future and with several members of staff owning Ebook readers such as kindle they have been enthusiastic in the possibilities of using it in the library to promote reading. They could also be promoted on the library blog. Currently the Principal is reluctant to include these in the collection due to the high cost.
Good Reads – The school library has a very healthy budget and as a result purchases books regularly. Each week there is a ‘book of the week’ that is put on display for all to see and shown on the blog before being borrowed. Students are able to read it in the library and then record their recommendation on the library blog. This is working well and encouraging students to read new titles in different genres to the ones they normally read.
Help – We are trying to build the social networking presence in the library by working with the technology team. They have been enthusiastic and have been showing the students tools available during technology lessons. With the library staff combining with the technology team social networking has a positive future in my primary school.
Zeal – The school library needs to be seen as part of the school and an exciting place to be. One Principal told me that she saw the library as an exciting hub and wanted enthusiastic staff in there promoting it. With enthusiastic teacher librarians it can’t help but overflow to the students and the rest of the staff. The possibilities are endless.
References
Brown, A. (2010). A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/
