I came across a local high school, Mission High School Library, on Facebook. The first picture was their cover page of an animated version of the library and great titles displayed in the picture. As you scroll down it has library information, such as the phone number and library hours. Their page has 538 followers, which is low for the page being created back in 2016. It had 3-5 comments that were library related. The low number of followers and comments confirms our idea that Facebook maybe fading or not as popular.
Mission high School library has posted videos on library resources and links library users can access. In addition, the library posts books that maybe of interest to their readers. One post was titled "Fierce Female Friday" and it had a collage of books with strong female characters, and another post titled "Throwback Thursday" with classis novels with a twist. There was a set of books for each day of the week.
I think this is a great and fun way to encourage and guide students, and promote books in your library. I see myself in the future creating pages similar to these. There are some advantages and disadvantages to using Facebook to promote the library. One main advantage is keeping in touch with the community, whether it be parents, teachers, or students Facebook is almost on everyone's device for easy access. A disadvantage for using Facebook is unfortunately their are other social media sites that are outshining Facebook. We can tell by the number of followers this high school has and the number of comments.
Linda Braun's tweets are geared towards library professionals and advocating for teens. She promotes professional development for librarians and posts informative articles that inform librarians about making informed decisions in the library. Her media pieces are of her at work with such passions for what she does.
This article was retweeted by Mrs. Braun and it is an article that shares data and tools in ways librarians could evaluate and adjust their practices. https://t.co/oiFapt1n36?amp=1
This link is a article that was tweeted by Mrs. Braun and its about how teens were challenged by this past year quarantine due to the pandemic. https://t.co/zww6qhwzf7?amp=1
The Daring Librarian- @GwenethJones
This daring librarian tweets of the discoveries in technology and shares her personal experience with it. A fun one she recently tweeted was "Do you know about secret bitmojis?" She provides her blog link where it explains her findings in detail. https://t.co/j5ZhgodC1U?amp=1
Alan November @globalearner
Mr. Alan November is an author and host of Building Learning Communities Conferences. Inn November's tweets he provides information and links to his conferences, which revolve around technology and using technology for the betterment of world. Here is one of his tweets promoting a conference (the conference date has passed).
Presenting #ISTE at 2:30 EST today "The Most Important Skill of the Digital Age" covering advanced search, computational thinking, engaging with the world..
As mentioned above he is also an author. Click the link for information on his book. It is number 6 on the list and rated 4.53 stars out of 5. https://t.co/Km1uXfG5sW?amp=1
Instagram can be used creatively to promote books, events in your library and much more. As I browsed through other Instagram libraries I realized its kind of like another online catalog, but with some pizazz!
Here is my photo posted in Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CT-IhHarHlc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Here is a video I made to share some programs at Dustin M. Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, Tx.
I had an eye opening experience using each and one of these social media platforms. Teachers, these social media sites are great to differentiate your lessons. Twitter is awesome for sharing articles and getting kids to read and share/comment on the articles and Instagram is another tool that could get kids talking and sharing ideas on pictures and videos. You can share tutorials or just a short book talk. Facebook although it may be lacking some cool tools the other sites may have, it is still a great communication tool. You can use this for parents or teachers to keep them updated with what's happening in the school library.
Some cons about these social medias is the possible confusion to those not so tech students, parents, and teachers. On the up side, librarians could provide professional development for teachers to help teachers use technology in the classroom. Librarians could also teach students when they visit the library as a class.
