John Rimer LIS 768

Assignment 1 1-31-2013

The Library Social Media Conversation

As library practitioners, how should we go about thoughtfully integrating social media into our workflow? And how is our profession framing the conversation about social media, both in terms of its impact on our public relations and marketing practices but more broadly in its potential to accentuate a strategic vision of the library of the future? The New York Public Library Certainly there is plenty of evidence of the current state of library social media practice to examine and evaluate. For example, the New York Public Library (NYPL) routinely appears in news stories in the technology press, mentioned for its innovative use of social media. According to website/news blog Mashable, NYPL is the number one public library in the world on both Twitter and Facebook (Black, 2011). According to NYPLs Public Relations Director Angela Montefinise, the library routinely uses Twitter to insert the NYPL into the day's breaking news cycle and its Tumblr is routinely reblogged by news outlets like NPR and Newsweek (2011). The British Library But clearly, too, the state of library social media practice is an evolving work in progress, as libraries adjust to feedback and analyze various metrics of use on the part of their service communities and shift their priorities accordingly. On February 1, 2013, the British Library will close an information-gathering survey on the social media habits of its users, which includes questions that one might expect, such as the following: How frequently do you access social media in general; What do you mostly use social media for; Which British Library social media

John Rimer LIS 768

Assignment 1 1-31-2013

sites do you follow? (British Library, 2013). But, other questions perhaps hint at an investigation into how social media practice can mirror or accentuate exhibitions and other library offerings made available onsite at the physical British Library: Have you been to the British Librarys St. Pancras building in the last year; Which of the following have you done in the British Library building in the last year? (2013). But how does one synthesize the vast amount of coverage and dialogue regarding social media and come away with a meaningful sense of existing trends in order to understand how their broader trajectory might have specific meaning for libraries?

ALA: Confronting the Future

One document which purports to offer a roadmap, or a series of possible alternative roadmaps of the future of the public libraryand which imagines social media as an integral part of that futureis ALAs Office of Information Technology Policy Brief No. 4, entitled Confronting the Future: Strategic Visions for the 21st Century Public Library. The brief establishes the context under which 21st century libraries operate, namely the disruptive change brought about by new media and digital technologies, and the challenges that change poses to the core mission of librariesmany of which will have to redefine their practices if they wish to survive. It goes on to suggest four scenarios, each representing a distinct spectrum of possibilities, representing the range of choices libraries may wish to incorporate into their long-term strategizing: Physical to Virtual Libraries; Individual to Community Libraries; Collection to Creation Libraries; and Portal to Archive Libraries. Although the scope of this brief is much broader than social media, it is useful to imagine the intersection of social media and library practice of the future along the various spectra.
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John Rimer LIS 768

Assignment 1 1-31-2013

The Physical to Virtual Library As libraries of the future are not limited to physical collections, some librarians may become Internet guides able to interact with patrons from anywhere in the world, which implies that other library functions will have similar analogies in cyberspace, including future-media versions of book clubs, and online topical discussion programs (Levien, 2011, p. 21). The Individual to Community Library According to ALA, the library of the future by necessity will address the needs of community more so than the individual, and libraries will assume responsibilities previously fulfilled by local newspapers as a platform for dissemination of information of local interest (p.25). Collection to Creation Libraries Libraries of the future will offer access to newly emerging media, the promotion of which may best be handled by social media, which can also facilitate the mentoring of media creation by patrons, which in turn may then be curated by the library (p. 26). Portal to Archive Libraries ALA is less specific about how social media might be incorporated into an archival-based public library of the future, but it does reference the mobilization of localized data in innovative ways (p. 27), which brings to mind the possibilities of data visualization using mashups.

Conclusion
Although ALA doesnt always specify social media as the platform for these types of library services, social media as it already exists offers the librarian a ready-made tool to experiment at the grass roots level with digital librarianship in a meaningful way.

John Rimer LIS 768

Assignment 1 1-31-2013

References
Black, L.M. (April 07, 2011). Top 5 innovative ways PR pros are using social media. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/innovative-pr-social-media/ British Library, The. (2013). Social media survey. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/surveys/socialmedia/index.html?ns_campaign=socialmediasurvey&ns_mchan nel=socialmedia&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=socialmediasurvey_kw_20130117&ns_fee =0 Levien, R.E. (2011). Confronting the future: Strategic visions for the 21st century public library. ALA Office for Information Technology Policy. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/oitp/publications/policybriefs/con fronting_the_futu.pdf