Month: April 2016

(Hutchings, 2015)

Five trends identified from the above video that have an impact on how individuals behave as digital citizens:

1. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.
2. Generations Y and Z consider email to be outdated.
3. Wikipedia has 15 million articles and has been shown in studies to be as accurate as Encyclopedia Brittanica.
4. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertising.
5. We will no longer search for products or services. They will find us via social media, in the same way that the news does. (Hutchings, 2015)

These have significant implications for the need for new information policy development in the public library where I am employed.

The first two trends illustrate the popularity of social media, in particular Facebook. As a library we must respond to community need, and if the preference is to interact with us through Facebook and other social media, we must have policies surrounding the content we place on social media, how responsive we are and who is responsible for maintaining social media. The public internet service also will predominantly be used for social media, so policies also need to be in place for our users that provide clear boundaries on what is acceptable and unacceptable when using social media. Educational guidelines referring to online safety could also be important.

With sites like Wikipedia gaining popularity and credibility, information searching behaviour changes. Instead of using books or reference librarians, people find their own information and use it. This gives us an opportunity to focus on to develop policy and practices surrounding educating users on evaluating sources and copyright issues, to ensure they can do their own research, and find their own information in a responsible way with the public library still being an essential part of the process.

The last two trends exemplify a major shift in how people learn about their world and interact and interpret it, expecting pertinent information to find them, and finding peer communication more relevant than traditional advertising. As a library we must embrace new ways to inform and connect with the community. We must have a solid presence on social media, we must respond and moderate our content, and we must ensure adequate internet access and digital literacy. Everybody should have equal opportunity to access social media in order to communicate and participate collaboratively, while also accessing news, products and services.

References

Hutchings, T. (2015, January). The social media revolution 2015 [Video file]. Retrieved from Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsdcFOiTYxw

It is important to first decide what you actually want to be able to do with social media, and then to choose and implement the best tool for that particular activity (Facet Publishing, 2015). The public library I am employed at is rather guilty of doing this the other way around, with a directive given that we must have a presence on a particular social tool, with little or no discussion as to why exactly we are there, what we want to achieve and how we will succeed. This has led to confusion in the past surrounding the types of content to be posted and social media not being used to their full potential. It is reiterated in other readings that the first step to a successful social media marketing plan is to initially set goals before deciding on and implementing tools (LePage, 2014; Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 76).

With goals in place and the right tools chosen for the task, it is most practical to assign staff, and perhaps even community members, who are already interested in using social media to manage social content (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 78). Forcing it upon staff is counterproductive, there is no particular communications officer/librarian, and most job descriptions have not been revised for social media duties inclusion. Therefore encouraging those with an interest and providing further training on particular tools is the best way forward.

There also needs to be a schedule for when content is created or posted and who this is done by, and guidelines for the type of content. LePage (2014) advises use of the thirds principle:

• 1/3 content is promotion and profit driving (in our case profit is use of various library services.
• 1/3 sharing of content created by others.
• 1/3 developing personality, brand and community relationships.

I found this principle simple and would think it to be effective. While I consider that we already promote and brand quite well, being more selective on content that we share could be useful to our social media image. Connecting more with our community including other public libraries and sharing their content, will help grow the network and further work out what does and doesn’t work for our users (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 78).

Lastly, our social media presence must be constantly evaluated against our goals, by both using the analytics provided by the sites themselves (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 79) and our own measures such as numbers of likes or shares (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 77), in order to improve the conversation we are having with our community and ensure the social media tools we are using are helping to achieve overall organisational goals.

References

Facet Publishing. (2015). Introduction: Social media for creative libraries by Phil Bradley [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zSsloDyvUg

LePage, E. (2014, October 29). How to create a social media marketing plan in 6 steps. [Blog post].  Retrieved from http://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-marketing-plan/

Ramsey, E., & Vecchione, A. (2014). Engaging library users through a social media strategy. Journal of  Library Innovation, 5(2), 71-82. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1628573845?accountid=10344

(UC Berkeley Events, 2007)

I have selected five pieces of advice given by the keynote speaker, Meredith Farkas, in this video which would be particularly relevant in helping the public library I am employed at embrace Library 2.0. These are:

• Question EVERYTHING that we do currently.
• Put our information where our users are.
• Place radical trust in our users to help create the future.
• Avoid technolust.
• Allow adequate time for web 2.0 learning and responsibilities.

(UC Berkeley Events, 2007).

Questioning everything we do is important for embracing library 2.0. This process encourages innovation in how we approach all tasks and procedures, and helps identify those that are irrelevant or need updating in order to create a more connected, collaborative environment.

We know who a lot of our physical customers are, and why and how they use the library, but know much less about our online community. Therefore we really need to establish where our community go for information and ensure we have a presence there, as so many people do not think of the public library as a highly relevant information tool. We do have a Facebook profile which is regularly updated, particularly during special events. and asks for community input frequently through games and questions.  After some research for this subject I have realised that Twitter could be beneficial to my library, as when used mindfully can engage the community, start a dialogue and create responses and action from that community (Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012, p. 352).

It is OK to allow feedback and give control (to a certain extent!) to the public. Negative comments and inappropriate content can be moderated. Placing radical trust in our community involves understanding that people like commenting and contributing. We have to be more open and trust our users to help improve our services.

Having a team of people comprised of all levels of staff to evaluate new technology and asking for community input could be ways of ensuring chosen technologies will benefit our library and our users.

Once a web 2.0 tool has been implemented, appropriate time must be given to staff to use the tool effectively, it cannot be squeezed in around other duties if it is to have the desired library 2.0 results.

References

Lovejoy, K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Information, community and action: How nonprofit organizations  use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17 (3), 337-353. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-  6101.2012.01576.x

UC Berkeley Events. (2007). Building academic library 2.0 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI