What’s In Your Window?

Passing through Wicker Park the other day, I spotted a pair of large window clings, displayed prominently on the main windows of an independent shop. One window bears a large Facebook logo, the store’s Facebook URL printed beneath. A similar Twitter cling, seen here, invites passersby to follow the shop on Twitter.

Now, maybe I don’t get out as much as I used to, but I simply haven’t seen these window clings anywhere else. Particularly, I haven’t seen them in my travels to libraries in the greater Chicagoland area. And at an estimated two feet in width, they’re fairly hard to miss. I may have spotted a small Foursquare or Yelp decal somewhere, but I really couldn’t say for sure. And while Twitter and Foursquare are still gaining momentum among popular social media sites, Facebook is, well, Facebook. Now that I’ve seen these, I can’t imagine not having my library’s Facebook URL displayed on at least one high-traffic window.

It occurs to me that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Signs are a staple form of promotion. Man’s benchmark for alerting the world of his existence, seemingly since the ancients developed means of written communication, has been to simply put up a sign.

Has your community been slow to acknowledge your library’s presence on social media outlets? Where Twitter and Foursquare are concerned, it’s quite possible that patrons simply aren’t yet using those applications. Now, say my library serves a community of 40,000. My Facebook page shows 27 friends and one of them is my mother. In this scenario, it’s a safe bet that my patrons don’t know the library is there. So, how can I let library users and passersby know where they can find the library on social networks? Apparently, I can put it in the window. Big and blue, bearing our URL, for all to read from the sidewalk or from their seat on the bus.

Let’s Make a List: Foursquare in Libraries

Back in June, I read a piece about how the Brooklyn Museum is using Foursquare to make connections among visitors to the facility. I wondered whether other institutions, particularly libraries, have done something similar–designated an entire web page to Foursquare activities.

So I tweeted a Google doc and asked how libraries are using Foursquare. The limited response suggests that either no one is reading my tweets, or not many libraries in my network are using Foursquare (or both). In any case, here are the replies I received:

• Darien Library has a Foursquare account and posted tips and offers prizes to the mayors: http://tametheweb.com/2010/03/01/foursquare-darien-library/

• My first introduction to Foursquare was through a webinar sponsored by the Connecting to Collections Initiative given by Nancie Ravenel of the Shelburne Museum in VT and blogger Colleen Dilenschneider.  Shelburne uses Foursquare, but to my knowledge, it is not incentivized.

• Surprise giveaways: Via Twitter/Facebook, first five people to check in get an ebook

• We give away a flash drive or other small techie prize to the first 10 people to check in.

• Our public library gives prizes to people who check in on certain days or at events. We’ve gotten more people to show up for certain programs this way–giving away ebooks, signed book copies or other autographed materials to people who check in at author events or other programs.
  
  
• You can give out things with library logo/slogan (shirts, iPad/iPod covers?, totes, pens/pencils, mousepads, mugs, calendars, etc.)

If these replies and the several tweets I received are any indication, awarding users with schwag appears to be the prominent use of Foursquare in libraries.

Care to add to the list? Have you found more creative ways to use Foursquare in the library or other institution? How successful have your programs proven? How have they failed? Please share.

Facebook and Branding

Bubble Room is a blog written by Alison Circle, a marketing professional under the employ of both the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Library Journal. In yesterday’s post, Alison briefly points to several reasons library systems should commit to a single Facebook page, rather than create individualized pages for each of the system’s branches. Her reasons plead for consistency.

How will it be possible that each branch page reflects the overall library brand? You’ll have different messages, different voice, different strategic focus. This is confusing to customers.

When we talk about using social media in libraries, it’s important to remember who are the benefactors. Putting aside the inadvertently condescending nature of the passage above, I find myself wishing Alison had written a much more thorough evaluation. The original question is an interesting one and deserves examination. However, the post addresses Facebook’s value solely to the library’s brand and does so only cursorily. It fails to explore the utility of localized Facebook pages in two ways: their value to the brand and their value to the user.

I’m willing to entertain an argument for the boilerplate philosophy of the brand. That methodology is part of what makes the corporate world go round. It’s what allows Anheuser-Busch to continue to tell us their product is the best product for everyone. Yet, for the most part, libraries don’t have a product. As many say, the library is its own product. And in systems where needs and expectations differ from branch to branch, a library may not be able to be all things to everyone, but it should certainly address diversity. Can a Facebook page using a “Locations” tab accomplish this? Branch pages for the Columbus Metropolitan Library would suggest the ability is limited. They offer hours, a map, the manager’s name, and a link to the library’s event calendar. Functional? Sure. Offering users an interactive, community-specific Facebook presence? Not so much. A well-branded library is a well-connected library–one that goes to where the users are and makes itself at home. It’s local. It’s hyperlocal. It gives its branches the keys to the neighborhood.

A regular Bubble Room reader, I can tell you that Alison’s thoughts on branding and marketing would be invaluable to any librarian. Yet, when it comes to limiting Facebook to a branding tool and denying users a participatory relationship, it’s easy to remember I’m reading the sentiments of a marketer–not a librarian.

Blogging Libraries: The Crowdsourced Blog

In my last post, I was thinking about participatory blogs hosted by library websites. How can we make library blogs more effectual? Should public library websites offer broader topical blogs, potentially appealing to a wider audience?

Then I started drafting a follow-up. About an hour later, Toby Greenwalt, of the Skokie Public Library, tweeted the link to his latest post on the library’s The Studio blog. SPL hosts a handful of interactive blogs that touch numerous subjects from research methods to book reviews to patron suggestions. As Toby tweets, it can be a lot of work to keep a regular stream of content on all these blogs.

Not all libraries have one or two people on staff who can squeeze regular blogging into their schedule. So I asked around to see if and how libraries are mining the talents of their users to pick up the slack–to gauge people’s experience with crowdsourced blogs. The resounding collective reply suggests a dearth of activity. Despite constraints of time and staff, libraries are managing their blogs, largely, without involvement of the community.

What’s to stop a time-strapped library from fielding and posting community-centric articles from their users? The crowdsourced blog could be age-specific or reach out to community writers of all ages. The mission is to source a participatory digital playground and encourage intellectual exchange while farming out as much responsibility as possible. Volunteer editors would help ensure fairness and the general integrity of the blog.

Blogs could be specific to community topics or to general subjects like literacy, the arts, or education. The library could host a poetry and short-story blog, mingling suggested reading and reviews with user-written pieces. Subject-specific blogs, like a YA or anime blog, a foreign language blog, a nonfiction or movie review blog, might help stimulate microcommunities within your usership.

Of course, the library must not necessarily host even more than one or two of these blogs. Start with one–perhaps a general discussion blog, allowing contributors to share whatever they’ve been thinking about lately. Sure, there are a million corporate websites where people regularly share comments and opinions on topics of personal relevance. But in the interest of hyperlocality, I want to give these people a local voice–a forum in which they aren’t always relegated to the comment board, but where they may initiate their own discussions.

The goal is your own–to get regular users involved in a library-hosted digital discussion or to conjure a blog of interest to community groups who may not be using the library’s services and try to bring them into the fold.

Do these things work? I’m guessing many fine veteran librarians would deem this a potentially colossal can of worms. So call me a rebel. I want to try it anyway.

What are the potential wins for the crowdsourced library blog? If your library is hosting, or has hosted, a crowdsourced blog, I’m sure we’d all enjoy the opportunity to learn from your experience.

Blogging Libraries: Making Connections

Librarians from various areas have recently commented on the underwhelming interactivity that takes place on their public library blogs. These are blogs, hosted by the library’s website, that encourage patrons to share thoughts on a variety of materials and services. For whatever reason, these blogs simply haven’t inspired the level of participation the libraries had hoped to create. My questions are 1. Why not? and 2. What types of interactive blogs have met measured success?

Has your library’s website experienced interactive blog failure? Were you able to find a remedy and garner more interest and discussion? What types of blogs have you found to be both valuable and productive? Please share your experiences or thoughts on potentially effective interactive blogs. Regardless of the type of library, the blog’s nature is one of connectivity, and I suspect these connections succeed or fail for many of the same reasons.

Will Blog for Food

In his post, “A New chapter for our Unwinders Management Book – Evaluating Candidates from their Internet Profile”, Will Manley raises some compelling questions regarding jobseekers on social media sites and blogs. Hiring managers are sure to perceive elements of a candidate’s public profile differently. Some, as Will suggests, may attribute varying degrees of conceit, narcissism, or calculation to a candidate’s activity on social media sites and as a blogger.

What Will wants to gauge is how people in Libraryland consider or would consider candidates’ social profiles when scouting resumes. Do you weigh social profiles heavily, lightly, or not at all? Given the opportunity, I would incorporate all available elements of social profiles into my evaluation of the candidate. And why not? Depending upon the information not veiled by privacy settings, a cursory look at a Facebook page or tweet compilation may expose character flaws or suggest endearing traits. What a candidate makes available for public viewing may also indicate her familiarity with social profiles and her ability to manipulate privacy settings, knowledge that all new reference and programming librarians should probably have.

More to the point, I’ve been thinking lately about recruiting practices in situations where new LIS graduates are competing with experienced librarians for jobs. The rookie librarian may have the experience of internship or volunteering or may have no practical library experience at all. She has her MLS, her relevant work experience and tech skills, and her vision. But vision isn’t tangible and won’t be much help to a discriminating department head or hiring manager. Unless, of course, she lays it out in writing–on a blog.

Narcissistic? Ego-driven? Some tenured LIS bloggers may certainly exhibit those traits in their writing. After all, many use the blog as an engine for professional critique–to share opinions. But when it comes to rookie librarians, I can tell you from experience that Joe Jobseeker’s ego classification rates somewhere between Beta and Omega male. Again, different hiring managers and HR people will perceive each person’s cloud profile differently. Still, most job hunting “tips” lists suggest the inexperienced jobseeker be involved daily in professional discourse, whether advocating on social media sites, commenting on blogs and LinkedIn discussions, or writing a professional blog. Some, like me, write LIS blogs because they want to. They feel compelled to do it. It’s no strike against Judy Jobseeker that she blogs and Nings to exhibit some professional participation. She is calculating only insomuch as she is doing what she was told to do to aid her prospects. Given this, I have to think that the consensus sentiment among hiring managers regarding new librarians with book review blogs or LIS blogs is one of encouragement or, at least, cautious acceptance.

Thoughts on neophytes in the Libraryland job market? We’re always listening. Please share.

Why Aren’t You Here?

In my travels this week, I noted that a certain north-suburban public library had not tweeted since June. Curious as to the reasons for the lapse, I decided I should contact the library and satisfy my professional curiosity. And I still might. Instead, I decided to blog about it.

It could be that the person who was tweeting took a position elsewhere and her position remains open. Perhaps delayed or slashed funds have left the library understaffed and short of time for social networking. Maybe the director has found that they simply have too few Tweeps to justify continual use of the network. Or maybe somebody decided the whole thing is just stupid.

Perhaps I should have my head examined, but I remain among those in LibraryLand who believe social networks are a great tool for not only contributing to professional discourse, but for seeking library ubiquity–for getting hyperlocal. Blah blah, yawn. I know. You’ve heard it all before. Still, one shouldn’t pooh-pooh the potential benefits of these simple cloud tools. They’re free. They’re fast. They’re reciprocal. They can be collaborative. They push programs, services, and your brand.

Yet many astute library professionals, particularly administrators, have yet to bring their libraries onboard the social media boat. Others have made brief appearances on social networks only to disappear soon after. Another suburban library, one whose director is notably proactive about marketing strategies, has no Facebook or other social network presence.

This is the part where I might write, Everybody else is already there, so shouldn’t your library be there too? But I know that everybody is not there. It may often seem like everybody is there, but the digital divide simply does not allow everybody that type of access. Many public libraries serve very small communities or communities comprised largely of poor and immigrant families who can’t afford daily computer and web access. Many of these people have little or no experience with computers or the Internet. Many others have no interest.

I’m not a library director. I don’t manage a staff of programming librarians, reference librarians, techies, clerks and pages. So I’m curious about the practical reasons why libraries don’t use social networks, particularly Twitter and Facebook.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Against Me! The Internet

In the last few weeks I’ve heard radio commercials for numerous “reputation management and privacy” companies. A man tells us in brief how fine and casual his work and social lives are. Then, the tense, spooky music. The man tells us how, suddenly, his friends ignore him on the street and that big promotion was given to someone else. He frets, Has the whole world turned against me? No, says ReputationDefender. Not the whole world. It’s the Internet!

You see, our friend has been so busy on Facebook, Twitter, and his other social networks that he forgot to manage the privacy settings. Now his public profile is revealing such unsavory photos and regrettable tweets that his social and professional lives are crumbling to ruin.

Can this type of thing really happen? Sure it can. It does happen. Companies like ReputationDefender exist to serve real concerns and capitalize on people willing to spend money to cleanse and protect their Internet profiles.

Do people really need to spend 100 dollars every year for this peace of mind? Well, no. They don’t. Every social network site allows some level of personalized privacy. Users simply don’t think about things like privacy when opening that free account. In time, every tweet, photo, status update, and random comment is available for the world to see and read. A potential employer can Google our friend’s name and get all she needs to know about him. Things were going so great with Brenda. Now she won’t return my calls. I just can’t understand it. D’oh!

Every information professional should be familiar with the ins and outs of Internet privacy. Librarians should be hep to Facebook and Twitter, the top two social networking sites, and how to manipulate their privacy settings. When librarians have this basic ability, they can share with Web-active patrons of all ages and help alleviate the anxiety and stigma that always follow social networking.

Schedule a program in your library, making available as many computers as possible. Begin the class by having users log out of any social network to which they belong. Then have them Google their names and analyze the results. The object of the class is to make search results disappear. Show users the privacy functions of their social network sites and how to personalize them as best they are allowed. Lastly, have them log out and Google their names again.

Neither the world, nor the Internet is against our friend in the radio ad. And, really, ReputationDefender only wants a C note every year. Yet, while the Internet and the library now share space, progressive librarians are looking for ways to make them play nice. Showing users how to protect their public profiles serves this goal and saves everybody money. And in cases like the poor guy in the radio spot, helping one user manage his personal information can be just as important as helping another locate public information.

Tweeting Libraries

Many librarians remain unfamiliar with the concepts and practices inherent in what we know as Library 2.0. I suggest free social software is the place to start if you want to get savvy regarding technological tools that aid library success. You might have a look at this list by a site called Accelerated Bachelor Degree. http://acceleratedbachelordegree.org/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-your-library/ the list is almost exactly what the URL suggests–100 ways a library can use Twitter to push its brand and get hyperconnected with its community.

The recommendations in this list are very brief and come without elaboration. Yet, while I would not suggest that a librarian who is new to Twitter should use it to become instantly adept at Twitter’s numerous useful applications in the library, it is certainly a useful listing of Twitter presences to check out as you get started. Following are several excerpts from an essay I recently wrote on the use of cloud computing in libraries. Highlighted here are some of the most useful applications of Twitter for librarians.

The Skokie Public Library uses its free Twitter account to communicate on a daily basis with its community. Twitter is advantageous to libraries in a number of ways, not the least of which being a means of performing reference. Twitter acts as an SMS service, as users from anywhere can easily direct a short question to SPL’s Twitter page and expect a prompt response from a professional reference librarian. Furthermore, a Twitter user does not have to direct his question solely to his own library’s Twitter account. The user has access to every library using Twitter for purposes of reference, giving him an entire network of reference professionals to locate information on even the most daunting queries.

Twitter is especially useful to libraries as it can be used to serve several functions beyond reference. For one thing, libraries can use Twitter to push programs and services to the tweeting community. In this way, Twitter functions as a means of free advertising for new acquisitions, book clubs, children’s and adult programming, special events, and other forms of community outreach. Librarians can also use Twitter to link to other sites. The Ela Area Public Library can use its Twitter page to link to larger advertisements on the library’s main website, directing users to fast information about forthcoming events and other library news. The Madison Public Library regularly links to photos on its Flickr site to showcase construction progress at several of its smaller branches. In this way, users can stay mindful of what is going on with their local libraries while getting a sense of involvement.

Another function of Twitter is brand monitoring. As practiced on sites like Twitter, Yelp, and Technorati, brand monitoring is a smart and practical use of cloud technology for libraries. The Skokie Public Library has a very active usership where Twitter is concerned. Librarians not only market events and programs, but they are also able to monitor conversations among users to analyze what the community is saying about the library. Conversations among library users may include praise for a service or event, criticism for a change in floor plan, or simply a tweet about a favorite chair or quiet corner of the library.

 

Brand Monitoring: Twitter

For several weeks, I’ve been monitoring Twitter feeds from Madison, Washington D.C., and Skokie public libraries. I chose to watch three tweeting libraries, rather than one, in order to get a broader view of conversations regarding libraries in different parts of the country. Madison Public Library (@madisonlibrary) is using Twitter to advertise programs, events, and additions to the library’s services. It also gives notices of tech problems, such as wifi outages, and keeps users abreast of branch construction progress via links to the library Flickr page. There are only occasional transactions between the librarians and other Twitter users who have reference questions, and the turnover is under 24 hours. I posted a reference question to see what kind of answer Iwould get. The response was as-expected and posted the same day.

This week the DC Public Library (@dcpl) was listed as the 12th most popular library on Twitter. This is surprising as librarians there only tweet every 2-3 days. They are using Twitter for the same reasons as MPL. Some users mention the library in tweets, making comments and suggestions (i.e., nici browsing @dcpl (new site looks good, btw!) for some new comics to read. wish there were more ex machina titles. but walking dead ftw.). another user wrote the following tweet: cransell I wish being a subscriber got you free access to the Washington Post’s archives, at least I have a @DCPL library card!

More impressive is the activity found on the Skokie Public Library (@skokielibrary) page. While the other two libraries were themselves responsible for the vast majority of activity on their Twitter pages, SPL and its users are constantly engaged in conversation, be it reference questions, praise for library services, or library updates regarding services and events. In  the last week, a number of followers posted links to a letter in the Skokie Pioneer written by a grateful Utahn who recently patronized the library. Followers of @skokielibrary will occasionally tweet about recent experiences in the library, sharing comments about what they particularly enjoy about the library (i.e., staff members, accommodations in the library space, collections, etc.).

It’s clear that these lines of communication can benefit the library and its community in many ways, not the least of which are the means of convenient reference and user access to scheduled events. Librarians enjoy, among other perks, a quick, free medium to push events and services while easily monitoring what people are currently saying about the library and its services.