READ the post A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries (22 January, 2010) on the Social Networking for Libraries blog.
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).
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.
It is important that Tweed Library remains active on its social networking tools so that members of the public notice that it wants to be a permanent and active part of the online communities that it chooses to participate in. If members of the public are seeing regular Facebook and twitter updates from Tweed Libraries than it will feel more a part of the library community and thus more likely to use the library in their everyday lives.
G-Good Reads, Do your patrons need some ideas of what to read? Help them out with Good Reads.
In the modern world library patrons can become time poor very easily and do not want to spend a lot of valuable time searching the shelves for something to read. Setting up a Good Reads item both online and in house would save library patrons a lot of time by suggesting something for patrons to read. The item could be set up so that it would have daily reviews of a couple of interesting books through its online website, blogger post, Facebook post and twitter accounts. This would also help the library achieve the above goal of remaining active in the community.
Y- Youth- using social networking allows you to connect on a deeper level with young people.
Youth use social networking tools every day as their main form of communication with each other. Tweed library needs to set up its online social networking tools with youth so that they are aware of the existence, remain interesting and also can be used as a good way to seek feedback from youth as to programs and stock that they would like to see their local library hold and run.
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.
Facebook, Twitter and you tube offer valuable opportunities for the library to inform its community of the resources that it has available to them. For example with school holidays coming up the library could inform its parents and children in the community of any school holiday kids’ activities that it may be holding and also take the chance to market any craft books and kids dvd’s that may be useful to parents during this time.
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.
A blog would be useful for the Library to inform users of anything that may be happening in the library and also a way of seeking user feedback in the comments column under any posts that the library may make.
