What do libraries put on Facebook anyway?

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 are on staff to keep books flowing and make some pretty punny staff picks.This library also has another cute and giggle-inducing string of posts about 'librarian socks'

Current events

To keep their patrons up to date, PCPL's larger page tends to post a fair amount about local and national happenings that have an impact. In the case of the post on the right, The library wanted to address the recent passing of Sure Grafton, and the loss to the literary community. While bookish news and updates are always present, so too are regular current events.

During the debate about net neutrality, the library posted about the issue to ensure that patrons knew about this issue, and how it could impact them. It also encouraged patrons and anyone else who viewed it to stay informed and gain a better understanding of the potential consequences of the FCC decision. For the more local Pima County community, they have also been keeping people up to date on construction that obstructs normal traffic to and from libraries and events, as well as on project statuses on completion of The Loop. Libraries also tend to post when they sight desert wildlife near them either for novelty or because they pose a potential threat. Of course, libraries also promote their own events, upcoming and past, for people to attend as well.

The combination of these content types is what libraries post to create an community for patrons to access online. They can check in to see what's been happening at their library, and get a tolerable dose of what's happening in their local community, and the world at large at the same time. This kind of social media presence is ideal for libraries, because it keeps patrons interested in what they'll post next, making them worthy of following for their patron base, and potentially spreading their reach to friends of friends of friends on Facebook, bringing new patrons into the fold.