A. Major Issue and Focus
- Interesting issue of web content management about Using Social Media Tools to Connect to Customers to Support the Libraries
Notes
BULLET 1: I find the way libraries use social media an interesting topic for this presentation. I will cover most of the major issues surrounding the use of social media by libraries to connect to their customers to support libraries I have defined briefly in this presentation my audience, which will be the library management.
B. Context and Audience Descriptions
- Evaluate Australian state libraries’ use of social media technology
- Social media tools to connect customers to support them
Notes
BULLET 1: In the succeeding slides, I will evaluate Australian libraries’ use of social media tools to attract customers and patrons to support the following libraries, namely: (1) State Library of Victoria (SLV); (2) State Library of Queensland (SLQ); and, (3) National Library of Australia (NLA). Although I want to include other Australian libraries, this presentation material serves as an initial resource only. With the evaluation that I made later in this resource, I will get a better grasp and a better insight as to how social media should be used by libraries for their own benefits here and in the coming years.
BULLET 2: The context within which this issue is geared towards and directed to is on my evaluation of how the said three libraries in Australia use various social media tools to support its digital branches or centralized library (e.g., NLA) in connecting to their existing and future patrons. Libraries exist to serve users and their continual existence depends not only from subsidy from the national government, but from its donors, fundraising activities, etc.
C. List of Key points
- Digital era
- Storage, access and sharing in active learning spaces (Bonnand & Donahue, 2010)
- Social media dominance
- Libraries as knowledge repositories
- Benefits, trends, policies, etc. of using social tools in libraries (King, n.d.)
Notes
BULLET 1: There is an unprecented growth rate of information and communication implosion and explosion. The digital era continue to evolve and its benefits should serve its intended purpose (such as offering free services to the public). Hence, libraries should continue to explore best practices in the use of social technologies in public libraries (Smeaton & Davis, 2014).
BULLET 2: There is an unceasingly evolving medium of storage, access to information, and file sharing. Aside from hardware and software, the use of big data and cloud computing should be explored more so that libraries continue to provide invaluable services at a more economical and more efficient ways.
BULLET 3: People increasingly crave to be a part of instant virtual conversation, through different social media tools, thus making the social media tools to dominate the cyber space. We can only infer or think imaginatively in advance what social media be in the decades to come. Just to think of virtual conversation gone holographic, especially when its comes to hardware. Library authorities should think ahead of the time so that they are not left behind. No entities are a part of change unless they embrace change, not as it comes, but as it goes, comes, and anticipated. Library users and patrons like to see change within their reach (or fingertips, such as when online) rather than just be offered with the conventional ways of accessing information within the boundaries of library institutions. The trend is virtual and it happens just like in real life and time.
BULLET 4: Being a knowledge institution, libraries are not beyond social media effects, as libraries’ basic functionality is to accumulate, preserve and access the physical remains of human culture and knowledge. However, other than being knowledge institutions, they should also be technology adapters, creators, and innovators. All known government institutions that directly serve the public should extend beyond their current practice because everything seems to change by the second, whether informationally, technologically, etc.
BULLET 5: This issue is going to emphasize the benefits of using social media tools in library context, as well as, on the current trends, policies and state of social media utilised by these libraries, as will be expounded next.
D. SLV’s, SLQ’s, and NLA’s Use of Social Media
- Use a variety of “household brands” social media (Canty, 2012, p. 41)
- Social media for participatory network of library services (Smeaton & Davis, 2014)
- Upload and download of useful contents (Martin, 2014)
- Social media policies
Notes
BULLET 1: Examples of a variety of social media platforms include, but are not limited to blogs, video sharing (e.g., Vimeo, Youtube), collaborative writing wikis, RSS feeds, Google docs, PinTerest, Meebo, social cataloguing, social bookmarks, virtual worlds, and social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+), which are used to connect to customers to support the libraries. As libraries adapt these social media tools, they not only adopt to their use, but think of other ways to apply them according to context. SLV, SLQ, NLA, and other libraries for that matter are aware of the virality of the contents of social media. Hence, continue to innovate, think outside the box, and reinvent the wheel, which is a good thing as more and more information becomes free available over the Internet. Despite anything to that, these libraries offer access to reviewed articles and other quality resources that other websites cannot simply offer to the public.
BULLET 2: Social media for participatory network of library services, such as announcement of library events, direct communication with library users, marketing, workshop and seminar promotions, fundraising, etc., to open wide connection to library users and patrons to voluntarily give support to the libraries. The only way for these libraries to remain current and stay connected to customers, whether outside the confines of the institutions, is online acces anywhere, anytime.
BULLET 3: SLV, SLQ, and NLA offer access to various databases, subscriptions, open source materials, etc. to its registered library users promoted or accessed through various social media, which expect to attract more customers to access the said resources and may later on become library patrons and donors.
BULLET 4: The said libraries have social media policies in place, not to mention the social medium’s own policies, such as regarding acceptance of donations from customers.
E. Best Practices among SLV’s, SLQ’s, and NLA’s Libraries
- Librarian’s basic and advanced knowledge and skills of social media
- Social media for scholarly communication
- Social media benefits and disadvantages
- Librarians in-charge of social media (Choi, n.d.)
- Librarians with advisory boards for social media
Notes
BULLET 1: In this fast-paced technological world, online social media connect customers to e-libraries; hence, librarians should be knowledgeable and skillful in this particular aspect. Librarians should stay current but also explore other avenues in the use of social media that will help clients stay connected while supporting at the same time the advocacies of these libraries, that is to have a functionally ‘fluent’ public and not just literate ones adept in accessing information over the Web.
BULLET 2: Librarians know how a number of social media are used for scholarly communication. They are expert when it comes to accessing, sorting, systematizing, etc. information. They remain unreplaceable by technology because they have to be there (inside their libraries) whenever there are customers who want real-time and physical assistance.
BULLET 3: Librarians are aware of the benefits and disadvantages of social media adaption and use. They only have to continue unearthing more the benefits of social media for libraries while minimizing the negative effects of social media use. To do this, librarians should continue with their professional developments, through training, graduate studies, etc.
BULLET 4: Libraries have designated social media specialists who are simply experts in the field of library science. They are the library practitioners who can offer ingenuous ideas as to the profitable and invaluable applications of social media.
BULLET 5: Libraries consult with their social media advisory board in terms of social media adaption, management, use, etc. The social media advisory board is just like any advisory board except that their consultative expertise is regarding social media applications and their benefits for the institution and public.
F. Why Libraries Should Use Social Media Technology
- Updates
- Sharing
- Uploads and Downloads
- Tutorials and Tours
- Fund generation
- Retooling (Lockerby & Stillwell, 2010)
Notes
BULLET 1: Libraries should use social media technology because of ease in informing the public about updates, news, and related concerns for customers or patrons to continue supporting them. At present, there are no alternatives to social media in terms of vritually swift sending and receipt of information online.
BULLET 2: Libraries should use social media, which have photo-, video-, file-, etc. sharing features, to attract more library users and potential donors. How the materials are prepared, created, implemented, evaluated, re-evaluated, and monitored dictate the efficacy of social media use for fund generation without sacrificing quality and access to freely available information or resources.
BULLET 3: Libraries should use social media tool because library users can upload, download, share, like, upload photos, files, images, video, etc. as part of the promotional campaigns of libraries to connect to customers to extend an aid to them. Libraries should use social media technology because
BULLET 4: Libraries should use social media because library tutorials and tours can easily be accessed online by an indefinite number of viewers, which means more viewers and possibly more prospective patrons or donors. Tutorials and virtual tours are made specifically for the purpose of informing the public about library use and where to find the resources they need aside from the panorama.
BULLET 5: Social media should be used for libraries to generate funds easily from patrons or donors. Although there are donors who give their donations in person, the best way to send information concerning contributions and donations is the use of social media.
BULLET 6: With social media, librarians keep retooling their libraries, services and programs “to provide quality, depth and community” (Lockerby & Stillwell, 2010, p. 779) for users, customers, and patrons. Today’s retooling strategies are not simply the use of physical objects in this knowledge society, but the power of information sent to target users.
G. Recommendations for Libraries’ Social Media Use
- Continuous free Wi-Fi access inside libraries
- Use of library social media analytics
- Host contests or competitions
- Centrally managed social media library collaboration (Nüscheler & Cochrane, 2009)
- Joint technology venture among SLV, SLQ, NLA, and Australian government
Notes
BULLET 1: Continuous free Wi-Fi access inside libraries so that more prospective users will come to the library, use its resources for free or fee (depending on the type of service), etc. and then make viral to the world, through social media, new developments in Australian public libraries so that some nonprofit or social benefit organizations will possibly extend financial and other aids. Free services hook customers as they find value in their use of time, effort, and possibly money. Also, given herd mentality, people who crowds libraries, whether online or in physical setting, will definitely do so because others are there to converse with, share information, etc.
BULLET 2: Use of library social media analytics to get real-time data on a number of users, duration of use of various social media, such as from instant messaging, peer-to-peer sharing, mailing, browsing, searching, reading, writing, blogging, posting, etc. Analytics free librarians of traditional way of doing things, such as in monitoring who access what type of information in what peak or low hours of the office day, 24/7, etc. Without social media analytics, what is simply provided are data that are not particularly usable for research purposes.
BULLET 3: Hosting of contests or competitions, such as most liked social media e-library user, logo-making submissions, etc. during a national or local library day to raise fund in the process from participants’ registration fees, individuals’ donations, etc. Being a host means staging a central image that libraries exist as better than before. They are not only knowledge repositories, but also like any dynamic institutions whose online presence is something academicians, studentss, professionals, and typical users cannot simply live by without.
BULLET 4: Develop an Australian social media library app as a centrally managed social collaboration tool intended specifically for e-library users, students, professionals, and other interested individuals, groups or organizations to get support from any of them. Although there are already available library app online, it is best to consider an app developed primarily for Australian citizens, immigrants, tourists, students, etc.
BULLET 5: Joint technology venture among SLV, SLQ, NLA, and Australian government to develop a humanoid or robot librarian that can go places where people can ask questions and have the information they need. The robot librarian is definitely better than a mobile library, though not necessarily as librarians. However, from another angle, it will surpass current conventions of accessing information even with the inclusion of social media use. The humanoid librarian is a top-of-the-line social media library tool. Mass production will then be highly recommended for use in various settings (e.g., classroom, government facilities, parks, and other places other than the library). The robot have other features and capabilities other than built-in library equipment, such as printer, videocam, flashlight, call and text capabilities, barcode scanning, etc.
G. Current Trends in Social Media Use for Libraries
- Handheld devices for better mobility accessing library contents (Cramer, n.d.)
- Education on social media use among librarians and clienteles (Smith, 2013)
- Exponentially growing numbers of e-library social media users
- Adaption and use of other more promising social media tools (Cunningham, 2010; Hemmig & Montet, 2010)
Notes
BULLET 1: Increasing use of handheld devices (smartphones) to access online library content where mobility is the trend among library guests, patrons, etc. Traditionally, libraries offer materials in hard or printed form. However, with modern technologies, such as mobile electronic devices, information in soft form can virtually be accessed anytime, anywhere by almost anyone with the gadget.
BULLET 2: Librarians undergo professional social media training/development because they have to keept abreast with technological changes necessary for continual improvement and satisfaction of library users and patrons. During training, seminars, workshops, etc. librarians can have the opportunities to collaborate with other experts from various disciplines. That is precisely the best thing to do given the multi- and inter-disciplinarity of libraries in regards to available information. Aside from librarians, some clienteles also get the privileges of being trained as well. So do students during their on-the-job training.
BULLET 3: Exponentially growing e-library users who use social media, given that the World Wide Web is virtually the largest library ever, as compared to previous brick-and-mortar access of information in physical libraries. Needs of library users and patrons has to continuously be met considering changes in technology development and use. With an exponentially growing e-library users who utilize the power of social media, more and better undertakings should be resorted to because people have the unsatiable need for information that helps. There is yet no better alternative to libraries when it comes to accessing high quality, credible, and reliable information physically or in the Web.
BULLET 4: Technology creation and use keep becoming current. Libraries has to adapt and use more promising social media tools to connect to customers to better to get aid. Technology creation, development, and use is simply unpredictable. What may be current today in the social media world may be a passé years from now. We cannot just simply anticipation all that is about to happen and evolve. We can only surmise at best.
References
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Canty, N. (2012). Social Media in Libraries: It’s Like, Complicated. Alexandria, 23(2), 41-53. doi:10.7227/ALX.23.2.4
Choi, C. (n.d.). Is your library ready for a social media librarian? Retrieved from Conferences: Australian Library and Information Association: http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2012/Papers/18_Crystall.Choi.pdf
Cramer, M. (n.d.). The State of Web Content Management. EContent, 6-8.
Cunningham, K. (2010). The Hidden Costs of Keeping Current: Technology and Libraries. Journal of Library Administration, 50(3), 217-235. doi:10.1080/01930821003634955
Hemmig, W., & Montet, M. (2010). The “Just for Me” Virtual Library: Enhancing an Embedded eBrarian Program. Journal of Library Administration, 50, 657–669.
King, D. (n.d.). Running the Digital Branch: Guidelines for Operating the Library Website. Library Technology Reports, 48(6), 23-27.
Lockerby, R., & Stillwell, B. (2010). Retooling Library Services for Online Students in Tough Economic Times. Journal of Library Administration, 50(7-8), 779-788.
Martin, E. (2014). The State of Social Media. EContent, 20-21.
National Library of Australia. (2014). Homepage: The National Library of Australia. Retrieved from http://www.nla.gov.au
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Smeaton, K., & Davis, K. (2014). Social technologies in public libraries: exploring best practice. Library Management, 35(3), 224-238.
Smith, E. (2013). User education in social media applications @ your library. The Australian Library Journal, 62(4), 305-313. doi:10.1080/00049670.2013.845075
