Reasons Why Libraries Should be on Social Media

Harvey (2009, para 6) states that new technologies should not be used because they’re new and fun to use.  She notes that questions to an audience aged from 18-29 revealed that they experimented with new tools but used a limited few on a regular basis.  (Harvey, 2009, para 10) Social networking tools (SNT) cover a range from blogs, wikis, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, del.icio.us, RSS feeds, podcasts and so on. What social media should libraries use?  It depends on their users.  Wikis can be used for internal projects and del.icio.us to set up bookmarks for a journal club.  Every library can use RSS feeds for alerting whether to emails or phones.

Collaboration, conversation, community and context creation are the 4C’s of social networking.  This comes back to communication which is a main reason for using SNT.

The three libraries chosen were national (National Library of Australia [NLA], http://www.nla.gov.au), state public (State Library of W.A. [SLWA], http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au) and university (Charles Sturt University [CSU], http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library). 

RSS feeds were used by all three libraries from their blogs and the NLA from Facebook.  A blog is an alerting tool that can cover a wide range of new happenings, list newly acquired items, changes occurring within the library, etc.  It puts a human face to the library, makes it approachable and is a good promotional tool.  NLA and CSU have three subject blogs and the SLWA one.  It is also a way of marketing/advertising that will reach a more diverse audience.  (Burkhardt, 2009, para 4.)

Other prominent communication tools are Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.  Does a medical or law library need a profile on Facebook or MySpace.  Would their clients use Twitter?   On the other hand would students be without it.   The NLA and CSU both use Twitter with 2349 and 337 followers respectively.  The NLA (1561 likes) and SLWA (309 likes) use Facebook.  Having a space where comments can be left gives clients useful feedback access, and librarian’s better understanding of their clients.

Reasons to use SNT are connecting to a wider audience, communicating well, serving clients more effectively and responding to feedback.

Reference

Harvey, M. (2009). What does it mean to be a Science Librarian 2.0? Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, (Summer). Retrieved from http://www.istl.org/09-summer/article2.html.

Andy Burkhardt’s (2009, August 25). Four reasons libraries should be on social media. Message posted to http://andyburkhardt.com/2009/08/25/four-reasons-libraries-should-be-on-social-media/.