School Libraries and Strategies for Social Media - Matty McPherson

School Libraries and Strategies for Social Media

A simple online search query for "school libraries and social media" will provide innumerable responses; with so many situated responses, it can be a bit difficult to wrangle them into a cohesive vision. Spend enough time scrolling through various blogs, guides, or academic reports, and you will likely come to a conclusion that Social Media services--like Twitter or Snapchat--can be leveraged in ways that market and bolster the library. At the end of the day, these services provide an underlying level of "connection". Seriously, read any article on SM in a school library and you can be assured an answer involving how Social Media "keeps libraries in touch with their patrons".

A) Libraries need to stay on top of what Social Media is most popular with their patrons.

Back in 2019, Hannah Byrd Little published an insightful blog post noting how libraries and their patrons adapted to changes in Social Media. I found her perspective refreshing, as she had signed up and was using Facebook to promote her library's events as far back as 2007, back before the proliferation of smartphones and Facebook was quite chic with college and high school students:

The reason I decided to take the plunge into social media back in 2007 was a need for communication with my patrons. Students were not reading their email consistently, but they were all on Facebook. We took advantage of groups, and then pages. We used events to advertise library events; we also loved an older feature called “Notes.” Keep in mind the first iPhone was released in June of 2007, and it would be a few years before children began carrying these devices. Therefore, Facebook was a common site on the library computers.

Beyond just the situated response that evokes a whiff of nostalgia, Hannah Byrd Little's post notes how as what SM patrons are using changes, so do the ways a library structures its own SM game. Hannah Byrd Little saw younger patrons jumping ship from Facebook to Snapchat and Instagram by the mid-2010s (likely due to their parents & grandparents beginning to populate the site), as well as a new opportunity to shift focus from Facebook group pages towards the "story" feature on both apps.

B) Libraries can use this technology to microcast and create engaging assignments or turn their facility into "the heart of campus"

So, if you are on the lookout for which social media is most popular with students, that's a solid start. Making posts that engage and subtly draw people more and more to the library is the next goal! Hannah Byrd Little made that her focus when she registered a library Instagram in 2015 and a Snapchat the year after.

While both apps' heavy visual emphasis may have made article or link sharing an uphill battle, Instagram stories have produced a variety of possibilities to promote and engage:

Some of the things you can do include tagging your location, mentioning another Instagram account like an author or bookstore, adding a hashtag, creating a poll, a question, a quiz, or a countdown. Also, many literary and library-related “stickers” are available to add to your stories.

Snapchat may remain a little too personal-communication oriented for a school library to conder. Although, librarian Tara Martin has leveraged Snapchat's intimacy into #booksnaps, a way that can create greater student participation and connection with the texts at a classroom level!

A Case Study with Kelsey Bogan

Librarian Kelsey Bogan meanwhile, struck up quite the social media operation, turning her high school library's instagram into a marketing ground game (and her TikTok into a space for nifty storytime spotlights). In her blog posts, Bogan remarks how "the library is the heart of the school" and should be treated and considered as such. Even with the best staff, circulation, and programs though, a campus of students can completely miss the library!

Bogan noted five methods--from lollipop bribes to posting often (and with humor)--that turned the school library's instagram turned the account into one of the most popular on campus, garnering student admiration. She made it a priority to maintain that as a digital public space for these students, practically making their day when they would be posted on the account's story, and students quickly found themselves enamored; they clamored to be on it and even worked to coordinate the account to post about upcoming school social events, knowing it wielded the school audience. Yet beyond courting high schooler's vanity and social lives, Bogan utilized the account to post library announcements and other pieces of good news--the kinds of things that keep school administration in the loop and excited about what their library is accomplishing. Bogan instinctively understood that in a school environment, administration may not always be clued into the daily affairs of the school library. Using instagram kept the library in their thoughts, and when she had time, she would be able to approach and better advocate for the state of the library.

Now, Bogan's methods are quite thorough and worth consideration. That does not mean your library social media has to be run as such! There are a litany of other possible ideas and considerations for engaging with students via social media! The Young Adult Library Services Association has developed this list that practically covers a whole other sphere of ideas down to a T.

C) How Should a School Library Conduct Itself?

Thus, that leaves us with a short moment to consider how a school library should implement guidelines for posting, et al. Bogan was adamant to garner permission from students and parents, in order to make her posts a proper success that could relate to the students. Before though a school library is considering those types of endeavors, a simple action plan and overview can be of inherent value.

New Zealand's National Library system has such an outline of guidelines that are great to consider. The site also balances itself with an emphasis on accounts that exemplify these guidelines, as well as offering a list of considerations for whichever platform is picked up and utilized.