Week 5 Social Media, is it worth it?

I do agree that Social Media is a great tool for Libraries. This course was very interesting and it did offer some idea's I hadn't thought of before. I do feel with my library that Facebook and Twitter are the way to go.  I am still trying to build up our followers on Facebook but it seems in this small town not too many of our patrons are into Social Media. I feel like I am forcing it on them at times and there is very little interest shown by them.

For us I think it would be a waste of time to use Instagram, or Youtube. In bigger areas or libraries with a younger patron following it would be a great tool for their libraries.

I use our Facebook page to keep patrons up to date on new book arrivals, magazine, and special events at the library or in our town. One of our top posts was the picture I shared of the new sitting area furniture that we added recently. Facebook is a great way to reach your community and to let them see that there are some exciting and fun things going on at their library.

I am trying to link our Facebook page to our Twitter account. When you link the two, everything you post on your Facebook page goes automatically to your Twitter.

Week 4 Instagram

Okay I used my good friend Google because searching through Instagram was fruitless. I found UOREGONLIBRARIES which is a University of Oregon Library. instagram.com/uoregonlibraries. 
They seem to be using Instagram to show what the Library h as to offer it's students. They mostly have 
pictures of the aisles, and sections of their library.

The other one I looked at was http://instagram.com/utklibraries/ which is for the University of Tennessee.  This page showed pictures of some of the things they are doing at their library. They even take pictures of different events such as National Writing Day. I also saw pictures of different events like massage demonstrations. This was a pretty fun and upbeat page that I think is very well directed towards their students.

Hey Wow look at me I am taking to blogging.

Huh you can make some pretty awesome layouts too. okay there is something to this blogging Miranda :)

Week 3 Youtube

I picked a video that showed it's patrons how to use the Overdrive program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7kFLGKwx8

I liked how the presenter talked patrons through signing up/logging in and how to check out the books. A really good feature that was used is a pen to draw circles around what she was talking about so it was easier to understand what she was trying to convey.  The presenter also showed how to check out different versions of the Ebooks they offer. Walking patrons through step by step is a great way to teach them how to use Overdrive.

I watched Diane's youtube video choice-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32h-h27lgA which showed some activities a library does for it's young patrons. It was interesting to see some different things the library did with it's story time. It wasn't a traditional story time, they did some singing and stretching first to get the kids involved.