eSociety: Discovering Humanity in the Digital

Fake news . This recent rash of viral misinformation spread on social media is of great concern to anyone who seeks to understand the world around them. Libraries in particular are hoping to help patrons, and really anyone they can, understand this issue and empower people to recognize fake news when they see it. Libraries are pushing back, both by educating social media users, and by remaining an unbiased, credible source of information for anyone. Some libraries are combating this informative crisis by spreading helpful tips and info about spotting and blocking fake info in your social media feeds. Many libraries are trying to keep users vigilant. This has become such a common goal that the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) even created a simple info-graphic ready-made to be used & shared on social media. See the source blog post here . However, as we all know too well, one can only be hyper-vigilant for so long, and soc

So we've already talked about library presence on Facebook and Twitter, some pretty expected places. But what about Snapchat? This article about why libraries should use Snapchat blew my mind, and sparked my curiosity - so I did some investigating about how effectively libraries are using Snapchat. Finding library stories and accounts How can you find a library story? Turns out it can be pretty difficult. There are two main ways to find libraries on Snapchat: as individual accounts ('Friends') with specific handles, and as publicly available stories in Discover. Many libraries choose to create library Snapchat accounts as platforms for their library story. While I can see the potential benefit of this may lie in the ability for patrons to snap responses and questions in response to a story, it has the huge drawback of making that library insanely difficult to find on a whim. Patrons will need to know the library's exact handle in Snapchat to find it. One perso

By way of comedy, current events, libraries share special community interest content in the hopes of keeping their patrons connected & informed. Here you will find some examples of how libraries use social media content to inspire & inform their local communities. Comedy The Himmel Park Library uses humor and familiar library features to create funny videos & memes that are immediately relevant to the local community! On the left, you see a gif that staff created of froggy's emergency surgery. Froggy is a resident stuffed frog at the library, and is a friend & regular feature to just about everyone that walks through the library's doors. By keeping us op to date on froggy's condition in this hilarious manner, this kind of content makes viewers feel involved and invested in that location and the community it creates. Froggy is not the only stuffed resident of the library that patrons can befriend and keep up with on Facebook - a whole fleet of bunnies

Need book recommendations? Join me for this week's #AskALibrarian ! pic.twitter.com/JlQDgzMhLY — Lauren Stoolfire (@SunSoar25) March 15, 2018 As is the case with many organizations that have social media accounts, libraries have become more accessible to the public in many ways due to their increased online presence. For libraries that use twitter, one amazing kind of immediate customer service that occurs is through #AskALibrarian. Patrons can tweet at the library using this hashtag to get a response. People ask for book recommendations; library hours, services and policies; and even guidance for bookish gifts! Need a good read? Just dm or tweet your librarian! When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele and This Will Be My Undoing speak to a specific social justice issue #askalibrarian https://t.co/0bILuE4JNh — Pima County Public Library (@pimalibrary) February 22, 2018 It's not a direct correlation, but A Princess in Theory b

Many public libraries have Youtube channels that serve a variety of functions and have diverse content. One such kind of content you can find on library channels is youth project content - where young patrons are encouraged to express themselves and learn how to make and share videos using the library. Here are a few great examples of these videos from different public library systems: Pima County Public Library The New York Public Library The Kansas City Public Library While this kind of content is by no means professional or polished to fit library branding, it still creates an atmosphere of acceptance and inclusion. By letting youth use library services and resources to create content like this, these libraries are telling young people that their voices matter, and that their ideas are worth sharing. I had hoped that I would find more content like this when looking through the Youtube channels of various public libraries, but it was actually quite rare for a l

Library websites are now essential for patrons and staff alike to create community and contribute to library culture. One particular kind of website that our local library system utilizes is the Bibliocommons site. This is a new breed of website designed with libraries in mind, which makes community creation and interaction within a library system, and with other library systems, more accessible in the digital arena. What is Bibliocommons anyway? Bibliocommons is essentially a webiste-building tool (much like Wix or SquareSpace) that is marketed to public library systems. This website builder offers various applications and options for online community building. I'll be analyzing the Pima County Public Library's site created with Bibliocommons, but there are many other libraries that have Bibliocommons sites. Power to the patrons! This community interaction has many levels and forms on the patron level. The building block that is key in community interaction