Facebook is a social media website that allows individuals to create and share posts.
Most people use technology in their every day activities. School district are implementing the integration of technology into their schools and classrooms. Since school district are using social media, its only fair for school libraries to use it as well.
School libraries are using Facebook to promote themselves with the public. I explored several school libraries and they are posting summer reading activities or recognition of individuals or groups. Many of the posts did not have any comments. The few that did, had positive comments.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using Facebook when promoting library.
One advantage is creating the page as public, which helps keep the parents/community informed about school events. Another advantage is promoting community events. On the other hand, there are disadvantages as well. A post may be seen negatively or misunderstood. If the page is public, this means anyone on Facebook can see it and comment. Also, the post can be shared with others without your consent. Before posting students' pictures, the librarian needs to be aware of privacy issues. Last, there may be a risk of hacking.
As a future librarian, I would like to use Facebook to promote my library. I must be vigilant when posting. Also, I would post both in English and Spanish to better serve our community and reach more parents.
Twitter is another social media where individuals may tweet (post). Unlike Facebook, most tweets are short in word length.
As I read over ed tech tweets, many are retweets. There are many personal tweets (Bachelorette to basketball game). Also, there are many professional tweets. Gwyneth Jones @GwynethJones tweeted a Middle School Summer Reading List with a QR code. Some tweets are for promoting books being read. Others promote organizations, conferences, journal articles, or social issues.
Twitter is something new to me. I'm still become familiar with it. However, I don't foresee myself using in the future to promote my library.
Hi Cynthia. I'm not sure that I will use Twitter either, as a librarian. I will definitely use Facebook. I am disappointed that we don't use it now. I love that you will be able to post in Spanish, as well. Maybe I could work with our Parent/ESL Facilitator and she could post some things for me. Thanks for the idea!
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