For example, one patron’s tattoo read, “It’s just a spark, but it’s enough” with a picture of a lit match in the background of the text. This quote comes from a Paramore song and the patron said that it represents her struggle with depression. The librarian recommended she try:

1. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
2. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney
3. This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin.

This got me thinking what I would recommend if I was the librarian assigned to these tattoo recommendations.  For this particular example, I might go with:

1. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
2. Lady Dynamite: Season One starring Maria Bamford
3. Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

I also wondered what other sort of algorithmic connections we could create in the library in an effort to relate to our patrons. Would it be a stretch to associate pictures of patron’s pets to a reading list for them?  If someone had a bulldog would I have made the thread to recommend Damn Good Dogs:  The Real Story of Uga, the University of Georgia’s Bulldog Mascots by Sonny Seiler, or A Dog’s Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron? Could librarians connect your favorite television show to a book recommendation?  If a patron really likes Twin Peaks, I might recommend The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka or Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

While this may sound like just a fun one-off situation that the library did, in the grander scheme of things, it speaks to making person-to-person connections with our library community. It’s wonderful that computers can algorithmically link one title to another based on data, however having a discussion with the patron may lead you to realize that just because a person liked The Hunger Games doesn’t mean they will also like The Divergent series. There is not any replacement for the human interaction with our patrons.

References

Powell, Erin. 2017. 9News. July 17. Accessed August 14, 2017. http://www.9news.com/news/local/next/denver-public-library-offers-personalized-reading-lists-based-on-tattoos/457480079.

The post Tattoos are the Newest Form of Algorithm at Denver Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A side of Hemingway with that corn dog? Park-goers can get both in one place, and are encouraged to share pictures of themselves, the librarian, and their books (which are free, and they don’t even have to return) using the hashtag #PopUpLibrarian.  Here are some tips for replicating their success at your library:

Use Creative Outreach

The Wichita Library may be using a unique approach, so consider that a pop-up library may not work in your town or city. But there is definitely something you can do to reach patrons and draw them in. You must get creative, but you can even piggyback off the creativity of others.

• Pay attention to your community calendar and participate. Every community has events that offer vendor booths or other outreach opportunities. Be a constant part of them.
• Don’t be afraid to go outside. There are probably places within easy walking distance of your library where potential patrons are engaged in everyday activities. Whether they are visiting food trucks for lunch, picnicking in a park, or riding bicycles on a riverside trail. Go meet them, offer them books, and remind them the library is still alive and well.
• Give away what is given to you. Often libraries get donations of dozens of books they can’t put in their collection for various reasons, or maybe your library needs to weed books that have aged or been damaged. Giving them away at events activates the law of reciprocity — people who have been given books are more likely to return to the library.

Using creative methods of outreach and thinking outside the box and beyond the Internet and digital library offerings will bring in more library visitors. These visitor counts are usually vital to funding and community support.

Use Social Media to Spread the Word

Often, people are very willing to share their experiences on social media, tag you or your organization, and even use specific hashtags. But you have to put the request out there — complete with the hashtag you’d like them to use. You should also plan to follow up and thank them on social media. Social media is just that: social. If you never talk back to your patrons, they can’t tell that you appreciate them sharing what you are doing.

This means you must actively post and respond to messages, Tweets, hashtags, and other social media communication. This is a part of social listening, a technique used by many businesses to learn more about their customers. Libraries should be no different. This will also help you create and target events in the future.

Invite Patrons In

Librarians in Wichita can’t issue library cards in the park. They can, and do, invite patrons in to the main library branch that is easily in walking distance to obtain or renew cards.

The purpose of outreach is engagement and to bring more visitors into the library. If you have events or special programs going on, hand out flyers or bookmarks with the free books as a reminder. Those things are all good, but they are not enough. When at outreach events of any kind, extending a personal, warm invitation for the person to visit the library in person. Give them a reason to visit. In marketing, this is known as a “call to action” and you need to do the same. Outreach is marketing and advertising for your library, and though it is often neglected, libraries need advertising for the same reason other businesses do.

The Wichita librarians saw a unique outreach opportunity and also used the power of social media to ultimately invite patrons to visit the library. Let their ideas and innovation inspire you in your community as well.

Further Reading:

The Psychology of Sales – Why Reciprocity Matters

Eight Ways to Use Social Listening for Your Business

The post Pop-Up Libraries: Meeting Patrons Where They Are first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

James LaRue, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom weighed in on this issue, stating he, “…did not find anything objectionable to them.”[3] He said the tweets were only reflecting current societal topics and did not push a certain political view. LaRue said this is the first time the Office for Intellectual Freedom has come across libraries scrubbing tweets due to patron complaints.[4]

Here is the text and picture description for two tweets:

• Picture of Hillary Clinton with the words ‘I Believe in Science’: “We believe in #science too! That’s why we’re partnering with @coschoolofmines for a Girls in STEM Competition.”
• Pictorial collage of medical terms relating to reproduction: “Want more information on women’s healthcare reform? Here’s 9 books that will take you beyond the headlines.”

First, before we start analyzing whether the library’s removal of tweets was ethical, we must remember a fundamental fact: libraries are neutral places and must not be biased in any way, blatant or perceived. Biases include all things religious, political, age related, content related, gender related, and racial. Perception of bias is the key. There does not have to be a bias actually there, only the perception of one.

If we look at the tweets in question, a simple solution to the library’s problem is obvious: remove/change the pictures accompanying the text of the tweets. Tweeting about science and a partnership for STEM is not politically biased; but the picture of Hillary Clinton is. The photo of Clinton should be removed and replaced with something else. The tweet about women’s healthcare reform and the graphic itself are fine, in my opinion. Women’s healthcare reform is a current topic in today’s news. Is the topic debated in politics? Yes, but that does not mean that a tweet about library materials on the topic is a push for a certain political party. The text of the tweet is encouraging people to read books on the topic in order to go “beyond the headlines.”[5]

The decision to remove the tweets was perhaps rash. They could have been removed and then reposted with other graphics (if the graphic did indeed need replacing), seeing that for the most part, the text is unbiased. The library community needs to mull over ethics for social media and come up with a game plan for future similar incidents. For more information, ALA has a webpage concerning social media and ethics that librarians can refer to.

References

[1] Aguilar, J. (2017, February 23). Jeffco library scrubs tweets after getting complaints that posts are politically biased. The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/23/jeffco-library-tweets-county-commissioner/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

The post Library Ethics and Social Media first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries Online: The audience for these comments is public librarians. Do you have a personal library experience they’d like to hear about?

Carrie Ann DiRisio: Absolutely. Not only is my mother a public librarian, who raised me with a deep love of libraries, I am also incredibly grateful to my middle school librarian, Ms. Soplop, who encouraged me to read widely, and also was among the first to read my very first novels.

PL: Would you share a tweet or two that you, personally, thought were among your best?

CAD: “Hey you. If you’re having a bad day, it’s probably just the first chapter of an awesome story.
And you’re clearly the main character.”

“Wanted: other dude in love triangle
Must be: complete opposite of me in everything but equally good looking
Also good at losing and/or dying”

PL: The tweets have a bit of snark but aren’t mean-spirited. Is there a trick you use to achieve that balance?

CAD: I think the secret is just having a deep love of the genre. Mockery with no love behind it is cruel. I deeply appreciate and adore so much of YA that the tweets come from a place of good-natured ribbing.

PL: What’s your usual process for coming up with tweets? Do you jot things down as they come to you or do you follow a more complicated series of steps?

I have a giant stack of post-it notes by my computer, full of ideas for tweets. Sometimes I think of them off the cuff, other times, I come up with a bunch all at once. Last week I watched a popular movie, and it gave me materials for days.

PL: Can you still get lost in reading a YA novel or do you find yourself always on the alert for “material”?

Oh, no, I’m always getting lost in books still! I don’t think anything could take away my love for the immersive magic of fiction, not even Broody’s swoony self.

PL: Who are a few of your favorite YA authors? If they use any bad boy tropes, mum’s the word.

Hah! Well, I always say that tropes are tools. Some of my favorite writers include tropes such as bad boys with hearts of gold, and I love them to pieces. Recently, I’ve greatly enjoyed Heidi Heilig’s The Girl from Everywhere, which features a really cool twist on time traveling, and Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova, for its lush language and deeply immersive storytelling. I’ve also just started Timekeeper by Tara Sim, and I’m utterly enthralled by her characters.

PL: Does your Broody platform factor into any next steps you have for yourself or your career?

Well I’m thrilled to share this news: Broody’s book will be out in the summer of 2017, from Skypony Press! This will be a parody “advice book” full of Broody’s words of wisdom, as well as fun activities and games.

Carrie Ann DiRisio is a YA writer and creator of @BroodingYAHero. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pitt., and is currently pursuing her masters in Digital Marketing, although her true dream is to become a Disney Villainess, complete with a really snazzy gown. She’s previously presented at SCBWI Western PA and YALSA Symposium on social media marketing. She can be found at www.creativelycarrie.com.

The post YA Writer Dishes on Parody Twitter Account first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Although studying memes doesn’t seem to be part of a public librarian’s job at first glance, no matter how fun it may be, Brennan points out that even a basic level of familiarity with them can aid a librarian in assisting patrons, understanding the community, and even planning and promoting programming. For librarians first wishing to familiarize themselves with Internet culture, she suggests choosing a few topics of interest and browsing social media, blogs, and websites to see what people are saying about them. “See the flow of conversation and how people are participating,” she says. “Every community has their own quirks and internal memes, and once you find the niche you click with, you can start to translate that to other Internet communities.”[2]

By familiarizing yourself with a few topics and the various online platforms through which people talk about them, you might even get some ideas for new services or programs at your library. Furthermore, seeing various social networks in action will likely give you some ideas about how to communicate with your patrons this way and market your existing offerings. For librarians looking to learn more about memes in general, Brennan suggests Know Your Meme and Meme Documentation as great online resources and Memes in Digital Culture, It’s Complicated, and Life on the Screen as print sources.

Interested in a career similar to Brennan’s? She urges library school students to seek out positions or internships in technology and social media. These don’t have to be housed in libraries, as many LIS skills can be applied to these industries as well. Special libraries are also a great start; while a student at Rutgers, Brennan interned in MTV’s tape library. Many of these positions can be found through INALJ. She also suggests that students “take classes that don’t sound like typical librarianship,” naming database design and MySQL as two important tools she learned in library school.[3]

One thing’s for certain: with the growth of tech jobs similar to Brennan’s, the library world is changing more than ever. It’s no longer farfetched to see a patron visit his or her local reference desk with a question about a meme or other Internet phenomena, and there is a growing need to make sense of the array of content available through social media. Add an understanding of Internet culture to the ever-growing list of skills in the public librarian’s toolkit.

Resources

Know Your Meme

Meme Documentation

Limor Shifman, Memes in Digital Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013).

danah boyd, It’s Complicated (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).

Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995).

INALJ

References

[1] Julia Carpenter, “Meme Librarian Is a Real Job — and It’s the Best One on the Internet,” Washington Post, December 21, 2015.

[2] Amanda Brennan, meme librarian, in an interview with the author, January 12, 2016.

[3] Ibid.

The post Lessons From a Meme Librarian first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Why Tell Your Story Online?

Many libraries are restricted by city or county rules on employee advocacy. When funding or programs are at risk of getting cut, staff have to get creative in promoting the value of the library in the community. Digital advocacy is a great method of not only visualizing that value, but also disseminating it to your community through social networks, email newsletters, and your website.

The Rockefeller Foundation published a report in 2014 called Digital Storytelling for Social Impact, which offers insights and ideas from interviews with thought leaders in entertainment, brand strategy, and philanthropy. One of the key quotes from the report reinforces the importance of digital storytelling or advocacy for community-centric organizations, such as public libraries:

“Stories can embody values; they can show how an organization is living its life by giving tangible examples. Putting faces and names to [an organization’s] values goes much further to promoting high-level concepts that aren’t as tangible.” [1]

So where to begin? One place to start is by interviewing community members or staff members about what they like about the library and what they do while they’re there. You could also frame your story around library usage data or a timeline of a project, such as a summer reading program or an event of which you’re particularly proud. Also remember that digital advocacy comes in many forms, from blogs to videos to digital slideshows.

A Few Examples of Digital Advocacy in Action

TechSoup has an annual digital storytelling contest called Storymakers, but we’re always supporting nonprofits and public libraries in telling their stories online through educational webinars, product donations, and informative content. I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite examples of digital advocacy that we’ve seen over the years.

The Norton Public Library won the prize for Best Library Video in the 2012 Storymakers contest with its video, 12 Things to Do in a Library. Teen patrons created the video to promote the library’s collection of pop-up books. This project not only gave the teens a chance to show off their video skills, but it also created a new generation of library advocates.

The Oakland Public Library (OPL) is also engaging its community to tell the library’s stories. Sharon McKellar, the community relations librarian, talked about the importance of sharing everything you do on a TechSoup for Libraries digital storytelling webinar. Much of the library’s sharing is done on the OPL’s network of blogs, where library staff and partners write about events, share new additions to collections, and answer community questions. Sharon also does a fantastic ongoing series on strange ephemera found in the Oakland Public Library’s books, which has gotten the attention of local media as well as Library Journal.

Digital advocacy doesn’t end after the creation and production of your story. The M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury, MA got a construction grant from the Massachusetts Boardof Library Commissioners, but it needed a local match to actually receive it. The library had to privately raise funds in five months, so library staff members produced a video called Where Would You Be Without Your Library?

The staff reached out to the Massachusetts Library Association to promote the video and somebody from the association got Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing interested. After he shared it, the campaign went viral with promotions from John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, and other library-loving celebrities. But the video’s success wasn’t sheer luck: the library strategically reached out to cause-driven websites and newsletters, as well as library and book-related blogs, and told them about the campaign.

At the 2016 Public Library Association conference, Crystal Schimpf of Kixal and I will be presenting on behalf of TechSoup for Libraries about the ways that digital stories can be used for advocacy efforts, from raising awareness to political action. We’ll be sharing tips and ideas on how to create a compelling story for your library, and how to leverage it to show your impact in the community. Be sure to drop by Lights, Camera, Advocacy: Digital Storytelling for Your Library session at PLA 2016.

References
1. The Rockefeller Foundation, May 06, 2014, “Digital Storytelling for Social Impact.” p. 8. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/digital-storytelling-social-impact/. Accessed October 26, 2015.

The post Share Your Library’s Impact with Digital Advocacy first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

As the application’s tagline suggests, capturing and sharing moments at the library is considerably easy but it requires some digging to uncover inspiring posts. Discovering the accounts of prominent public libraries such as the New York Public Library and your own local libraries can be simple enough. The accounts could be searched for by name using Instagram’s search function, but discovering new libraries and library related trends can be overwhelming.

Hashtags allow content on Instagram to become accessible to a wider audience. Instagram users can explore content that are publicly uploaded by searching the hashtags that the creators have coupled with their posts. Browsing results of the most popular tags can prove to be impractical and daunting. Exploring the popularly employed #librariesofinstagram, for example, yields thousands of images that are related to libraries; searching for #library yields million of hits. As of yet, the only way to browse results on Instagram is through infinite scrolling. Since the results are ordered from the most recent to the least recent, seeing all of the posts for a given hashtag depends on one’s willingness to continue scrolling.

Results that are more relevant to your interests are accessible by searching for specific hashtags. Here is a sampling of hashtags being used by libraries today:

• Examples of tags that encourage participation include #bookface and #bookfacefriday which showcases creative uses of book jackets. #libraryshelfie features library shelves with or without library staff members to accompany them. Newly created #libraryinmyhand promotes electronic resources and services offered by libraries.
• Librarians that are fashion conscious may be keen on viewing posts tagged with #librarianwardrobe or #librarianstyle to see what librarians are wearing.
• Teen librarians may be interested in posts that are tagged with #teenlibrary, #teenlibrarian, #makerspace, and #yalit.
• #childrenslibrarian, #storytime, #flannelboard, and #earlyliteracy are relevant to librarians working with children. Some libraries have also chosen to have Instagram accounts for teens such as Franklin Park Library Teens.
• Anyone seeking inspiration on promotional displays may be interested in those tagged with #librarydisplay.
• Examples of responses to reference questions appear upon searching for the cheeky tag #letmelibrarianthatforyou.
• Posts of programs at the library can be seen by searching #libraryprogram and #libraryevent. (Some nationwide programs have their own tags such as the early literacy program #1000booksbeforekindergarten.)

While hashtags offer a way of accessing Instagram posts from the perspective of the library, location tagging is unique in that it offers a way to re-discover the library as it is experienced by its visitors. Library users on Instagram are publicly uploading their own content and are tagging the library’s location. Regularly reviewing the content allows libraries to assess how visitors are using the library and uncover what patrons like and dislike about the library.

The post Libraries of Instagram first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I wrote a few months ago about the data skills that future academic librarians can develop—but what would a data librarian look like in a public library? In this post, I’d like to review a few data concepts, outline potential differences between academic and public librarians, and suggest ways that public librarians could bring data to their patrons.

Data in the Public Sphere

You’ve heard about ”big data,” which I’ll loosely define as enormous collections of raw information. Ten thousand tweets on a given day, a million clicks on a website by 35,000 people, a hundred thousand economic indicators. How would you make sense of it all? That’s big data.

Click the animation to open the full version (via Penny Stocks Lab).

And big data matters, because it’s the method through which our personal life is swept up and analyzed by marketers, law enforcement, and researchers. This analysis of groups and individuals then impacts public policy, the economy, and our chances in life. But data isn’t just a danger—it’s also an opportunity. You and I have more access to datasets (collections of data about many separate people, institutions, or events) than ever before.

America’s Chief Data Scientist defines data science as “the ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex datasets” (whitehouse.gov). This resonates with one of our goals as librarians: to help people extract knowledge and insight from books.

In 2013, Obama signed executive order 13642, requiring government agencies to share their data in a way people can re-use, not just in summary reports. It’s a great move: it puts data about schools, the economy, business, and the environment into citizens’ hands. It allows ambitious high school students to do original analysis, journalists to cross-check official statements, community members to run advocacy campaigns, and business owners to evaluate the strength of their market.

And because this data is “open,” it comes at no cost to the community. As Meredith Schwartz writes in Library Journal, open governmental data is big news. Agencies now have to share—but we still need public user interfaces, local workshops, and skills tutorials to make this information truly accessible.

So how can libraries help? Academic librarians are compiling public and private data sources, teaching data analysis and visualization, and sharing how to manage and archive local data. Library schools are even hiring data specialists to train the next generation of tech-savvy librarians.

But there are strategic ways for public librarians to get involved as well. Just as e-books are available online and we help community members to use e-readers, so many types of data are online—and community members will still benefit from a guide.

Case Studies of Public Libraries in the Data Sphere

This spring, the Knight Foundation awarded a major grant to the Boston Public libraries to catalog and make regional data available to the public. Additionally, it awarded another grant to the Library Freedom Project so that public libraries could train citizens how to avoid the worst in data surveillance. Libraries like the Brooklyn Public Library are beginning to use Tableau to visualize their collections and patron needs, finding that visual displays of data capture the imagination of librarians and community members. Amidst thechallenges facing public libraries in the UK, Ben Lee argues that public libraries were created to help the working classes take ownership of their lives and communities—and that training residents to find and use public data fulfills a similar mission in the modern era.

What Would a Public Data Librarian Look Like?

As AnnaLee Saxenian says,

“A data librarian has a special set of responsibilities around stewardship and curation. . . defining standards, storing data . . . and organizing data in a way that makes it more accessible. And it may be a bit of an uphill battle.” 

While we would never want to replace the responsibility of other municipal agencies to care for their own records, data librarians could help patrons access public data, and even teach some of the skills that would allow people to make better use of these new resources. Given the cachet of “big data” in popular culture, publicizing the existence of “data librarians” could reinforce the relevance of public librarians as guides in the internet age.

Data training for librarians

While academic librarians focus on finding and managing research data, public data librarians are more likely to focus on open data: opening up the world of data to the community, helping people to access public data, or hosting workshops on data skills. Here I’m thinking of things like scraping real estate data and visualizing it using infographic tools like impact.io. People don’t need a data genius as much as a data guide—and that’s what librarians are there for.

So how could we get started? I would advise starting with School of Data to learn baseline concepts, and work through the Data Journalist’s Handbook to be able to teach how to work with public data in Excel.  Online study programs like Coursera and Edx run free classes on statistics, as well as more advanced courses on data science and data analysis.

Library schools are also likely to gear up and offer continuing education certificates in this area. As Sandy Hirsh writes from SJSU:

“We need people working in areas like big data who are coming in with the perspective that you get with an MLIS degree. . . it’s very different when you develop skillsets for big data from an LIS perspective.”

I’d suggest that this is true not only for LIS students going into software and tech development, but also for those who go into their communities and teach people how to find and use data. It fits our original mission so well: to bring knowledge to the community.

The post Data Librarians in Public Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Pros
Library associations are great places to network. In everyday life, you may not get a chance to randomly meet other people in your field, especially not on a regular basis. Yet within an association, one can easily parlay the relationships that are fostered into bigger and better things. You may learn a different way of assisting patrons or even be offered a new and better paying job as a result.

Associations are also great ways of keeping abreast of the latest innovations and technologies that affect our daily work lives. Let’s face it, we don’t all have a lot of time to sit around and read every journal and every article that discusses librarianship. With professional associations some of the best of these ideas are highlighted and discussed with you.

Associations also provide opportunities to flex your leadership skills. Being a member is great, but being an active member can benefit you even more. Taking the lead on a committee can give you management experience you may not get as a reference librarian. This can then give you the proficiency necessary down the road when you feel like advancing your career into library management.

The Cons
I have to admit that one of my first cons is money. Most of these associations require dues annually. For example, ALA membership is $48-$135, depending on your job status, and SLA membership is $40-$200 depending on what your annual salary is. These are just the dues though — they often do not include the cost of attending conferences, in and out of state. While I think it’s great that the fees are on a scale, it is still an extra expense that many of us, right out of school and burdened with school loans, may not be prepared to pay. Another “con” might be whether or not these associations are even necessary in today and tomorrow’s world of internet information globalism. I was reading the November 12, 2014 blog post from Beerbrarian, where he discusses what tools he cannot live without. One of his choices was Twitter because “I can’t afford to go to every conference I’d like to. Library twitter is like a 24/7/365 conference. Articles, blog posts, and other useful items get shared.”

I wonder if Beerbrarian is correct: Are Twitter and other social media sites are all you really need in order to achieve all (or at least most) of the “pros” of professional memberships? Please feel free to discuss and share your thoughts in the comments.

Sources:

http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/

http://www.ala.org/membership/ala-personal-membership

https://hq.sla.org/cvweb_sla/cgi-bin/memberdll.dll/info?wrp=membershipapp.htm

http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/10/association-membership-for-fun-and.html

The post To Join, Or Not To Join first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A Change.org petition made the rounds on the Internet to make Commissioner Barbara J. Jordan aware of the number of supporters for keeping the libraries open. At one point in 2013 it appeared that 22 of the branches out of 49 would be closed. 169 library employees were also to lose their jobs under Mayor Carlos Gimenez’ proposed budget. At this time grass root efforts really kicked in and large protests arose. Unfortunately, even though the libraries were not shuttered at that point, the budget issues reappeared in 2014.

Undaunted and refusing to give up, the advocacy efforts to save Miami-Dade Public Libraries continued into 2014. President of the Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library John Quick wrote an editorial in the Huffington Post as the situation gained national attention. Yale Professor Carlos Eire wrote a letter to the Miami Herald entitled Libraries Save Lives. In this letter, Eire states that one of the branches of the system was a refuge for him in the 1960s. Like many of us who loved libraries as kids, he still remembers details of the building vividly. Almost every effort improves when prominent people step forward to vouch for it and this editorial ultimately persuaded Mayor Gimenez and other County officials to rethink the library budget situation.

For now, the advocacy efforts for Miami-Dade Public Library have had a successful conclusion. The library is more important than ever in this community, as witnessed by this recent article wich shows that many kids need the library for homework since they lack Internet access at home. Many readers of this blog are already drinking the library Kool-Aid, but it is still important to bear in mind that not everyone gets why libraries matter. Utilizing advocacy efforts to your advantage can save your library, but ultimately it is more important to be on the offensive showing your community the importance of your institution at all times. Major brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Taco Bell know this and never stop repeating their consumer message. Now is the time to create your own catchy library jingle.

The post Miami-Dade Public Library Advocacy Efforts Succeed – Will Yours? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

One source of inspiration is the work of Rebecca Howard and Laura Raphael. In 2013, they offered Rethinking Readers’ Advisory: An Interactive Approach as an ALA online workshop. The presentation highlighted Your Next Great Read at the Tulsa County Library. TCL uses SurveyMonkey as a patron intake form. They then use the information gleaned from the form to develop personal reading recommendations. The patron receives detailed information about recommended titles, authors, and related library events. Patrons also receive the resources used to compile the recommendations.

Another option for enhancing your library’s services is by turning to social media. This spring, Your Next Book is on Facebook: Using Social Media in Readers’ Advisory, was offered as a PLA Virtual Conference session. The presenters described how they have enhanced reader services through social media like Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

In the session, Andrea Gough described how the Seattle Public Library has successfully coordinated social media campaigns to enhance reader services. Posting conversations on Facebook about books allows the library to “crowd-source” suggestions and create lists for others to use. They have hosted weekly chats to generate discussion and highlight areas of the collection. You can see examples on their Facebook page.

Stephanie Anderson of the Darien Library in Connecticut described her library’s use of Pinterest boards to create book lists. One example is their Real-Time Book Recommendations board. Darien Library manages this board as part of the service desk workflow. They allow staff to add titles as they interact with patrons. They have found using Pinterest appeals to an audience that does not typically use the catalog. Darien Library also creates links to their catalog from Pinterest.

Other social media examples highlighted in the PLA Virtual Conference Session include:

• Tonganoxie Public Library Facebook
• Darien Reads on Tumblr
• Darien Library Vimeo
• Denver Public Library Teen Twitter

Even simple ideas can enhance the library user experience. Last fall, the library where I work, Great River Regional Library, launched an Educator Request Form. Through the webform, teachers and homeschoolers can request materials on a specific topic. We developed the form after hearing that this type of virtual service would be useful to educators. It allows our library to offer targeted services to this audience.

Regardless of which idea appeals to you and your users, virtual readers’ advisory is a new and growing area of public library services. Explore these examples to see what might be useful to your patrons.

The post Moving Readers’ Advisory Online first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In the July/August 2013 issue of Technology Review (vol 116, no. 4), there is a brief article “Reading the Tea Leaves of Censorship,” by Tom Simonite. The article explains how scientists, monitoring censorship on Chinese social media sites, can predict political events happening (or about to happen) within that country. This article intrigued me.

Censorship is a touchy subject for many librarians.  We often view preventing access to information or removing material from the library, simply because some one wishes it so,  as “bad” censorship. However, as librarians we  engage in censoring decisions daily. When we make choices  about what materials to purchase, what to recommend, what site to refer to, etc.  we also are engaging in censorship to a degree. It is, in effect, the suppression of material, even if our motives are justified and our intentions pure. 

The fact that we are not —  not purchasing, not recommending, not referring, may in fact be indicating something just as strongly as what we do reference. Recommendation and censorship are to me two sides of the same coin. Likewise, they each have grand effects.  Recommended books can create author celebrities, while often the un-recommended, un-purchased novel’s author remains obscure.

So my curiosity about the implications of this article linking censorship or, to my mind for libraries, choices of inclusion and exclusion, with social media grew.  I wonder, if what does or does not get published on social media sites in China can predict politics, can what does or does not get published on social media sites of libraries predict anything anywhere?  There must be limits, but surely this kind of predictive quality is not geographically specific, or limited to political actions?  Do posts of material increase circulation?  Do moderated complaints affect policy?

This train of thought has led to a great number of questions swirling around the issues of censorship, social media, and libraries.If a library moderates posts on its social media site, should this be included in discussions of censorship? Can analyzing our social media content help us make policy decisions? And what is our social media content telling the world?

It is now common for employers to review social media sites, checking on potential and existing employees.  Of course, the same is true of the potential employee reviewing the employer. What does your social media content tell people about your library? I recently surprised a potential employer by noting that I knew their library had morale issues.  The potential employer seemed none too happy that this cat had escaped the bag.  However, for me, it was readily apparent based on their social media content.

I am not a big fan of social media.  I, personally, would like to see a lot more self-censorship in this area.  The idea that social media is indexed and mined for data[i] and available for all, represents a lack of privacy that I find disconcerting.  Still, one cannot argue with the possible benefits, uses, and results that may come of tracking trends in social media — it seems even trends in the spread of disease can be tracked via Twitter.[ii] 

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The intense storm brought about something else for Boston Public Library: one of its busiest social media weekends on record. The storm forced the library, productively speaking, to move off its slate of scheduled social media posts and participate in Boston’s in-the-moment conversations. It was a healthy reminder to the organization about the power of being present.

Two big-name brands that have been in the news because of their in-the-moment social media posts are Oreo and Poland Springs. Oreo made delicious waves during the power outage that took place in New Orleans during Super Bowl XLVII when it posted one of its signature cookie images with the note, “You can still dunk in the dark.” Although not as timely as Oreo, Poland Springs leveraged the unscripted appearance of one of their water bottles in Senator Marco Rubio’s rebuttal to the State of the Union address with this Facebook post. The photo was accompanied by the caption, “Reflecting on our cameo. What a night!”

A key component of Boston Public Library’s social media strategy is engaging users with library collections and programs. When all programs were cancelled due to the blizzard, the BPL team shifted to an intense listening mode, monitoring the news and examining what other organizations that serve similar audiences were discussing.

There were obvious things to report like the fact that all buildings were closed and all overdue fines would be waived. It was when the library posted about two simple things: library staff removing snow and a snow-themed book that the real engagement and sharing of BPL’s social media content began. Boston Public Library users were tweeting and posting about snow and the library decided to meet its users where they were and talk about the same things they were talking about.

One of Boston Public Library’s strategic principles is community gathering – both in person and online. The February blizzard made it challenging to engage in person, but tools like Twitter and Facebook made it possible for the library to remain social even while closed. On occasion, some organizations use social media almost like an online calendar, bulletin board, or low-tech repository for (blurry) photos. The true power of social media couldn’t be farther from that. It was while closed that the Boston Public Library opened itself up to re-learning this lesson.

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