Facebook and Twitter

Everywhere we look there are people on their smart phones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platforms. If you were really to pay attention, you would notice that people, especially teenagers, are on their smart phones more than they are interacting with the people around them. In this day and age, libraries and schools need to be using this to their advantage. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology discusses how teenagers view interactions online as more preferable to those in person and these interactions will create relationships between these persons.

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There are many different libraries that use Facebook to promote what is going on in their libraries. One such library belongs to my mother, Greta Adams, in Anna ISD. She has a goal, with the support of her library aides, to update their Facebook page as much as possible. This school uses these pages to update parents and community members on the events that are occurring in the library. I also reviewed a public library page from my area, the Frisco Public Library. This library uses their Facebook page to update the community on the events that are going on in their library. Recently they are sharing information about the creation of their library and events that are going on to celebrate this momentous event.

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Facebook is something that is often undervalued. People are on their Facebook pages everyday, most people are on their pages multiple times a day. Whether your library is a public library, or a school library, knowing this information will greatly benefit you, imagine how many different people that you can reach by simply having the information about your library on Facebook.

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Twitter is another social media platform that libraries and librarians can benefit from. This platform is not only one that many people access and use daily, even multiple times daily, but is one that is increasingly accessed by teens and young adults. On Twitter librarians can follow other librarians and professional library associations to get ideas on lessons, books, and events that could effect libraries and librarians. Also, there are many authors that can be followed on Twitter. Last year, there were some teachers at my school that connected with authors via Twitter and were able to Skype with them during class so that their students could interview these authors.

A post, on Twitter, that I thought was interesting came from Ed Tech leader, Kathy Schrock. A few weeks ago she posted an online vote regarding using badges for learning incentives. This Tweet sparked discussion between teachers and librarians from many different areas and brought up many different interesting perspectives.

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This is an amazing thing. In the past, in order for students to communicate with authors librarians and/or teachers needed to locate the author's contact information, locate the funds for the visit, contact the author, set up the visit, and then bring the author in. Now, using platforms such as Twitter and Skype you can connect with authors so much easier, cheaper, and with much less hassle. This gives teachers and librarians the opportunity to connect students with authors and to give them more life experiences than was previously possible.

While some people may be reluctant to jump into having their libraries on these platforms they can greatly benefit from giving it a shot. Schools can start out small, just posting weekly the things that are going on in the library. Then they can increase to show student work, events, ways families can get involved, and more. It does not matter what platform is used at first, just that the library is doing all that it can to connect with their patrons in the best way possible.

Happy Learning Everyone!

Naomi Emory