Using Social Media to Build Library Communities: A LITA Guide

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Using Social Media to Build Library Communities: A LITA Guide is a community-building action manual for practitioners across the profession. By bringing together an array of perspectives to explore community building through social media, this book serves as the go-to resource for professionals who want to take social media beyond marketing and promotion to build an inclusive and engaged community of library users. Each chapter contains clear explanations of important topics for building communities through social media, and readers will come away with cohesive approaches for their own libraries. Using Social Media to Build Library Communities demonstrates that an energetic and committed community exists to help and guide fellow community builders.

Reviews

Advancing the development of community is a core mission for libraries of all types. Communities of practice support growth and development for library workers. Social media promises assistance in both. Social media can, however, also be confusing, both in technicalities but also with understanding how people will react to different approaches. Using Social Media to Build Library Communities provides pragmatic and sensible strategies for libraries to realize the potential of social media to extend and transform community engagement. -- Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Titles on social media and libraries are abundant, but most focus on marketing and outreach. Young and Rossman take a slightly different approachusing social media to foster conversations and build communities. In three distinct sections (developing communities of users, creating communities of professionals, and transforming communities into action for social justice), the editors highlight voices from a range of library typespublic, four- and two-year college, health sciences, and school libraries, as well as archives. While each chapter presents valuable information, this book makes its mark with its final section. Here, Jarrett M. Drake examines how Princeton University documented its students #OccupyNassau movement, and April M. Hathcock discusses relying on Twitter to spark discussions of critical librarianship.... Verdict: This selection will be helpful to librarians and staff considering delving into social media, as well as those looking to harness it in new ways. * Library Journal *
The eight case studies featured here provide a refreshingly honest look at the challenges of building an online community. Tips are given on how to approach audience research and engagement, but the true jewel is how internal workflows were established to support the time-intensive need of feeding the social media beast. -- Amanda L. Goodman, publicity manager, Darien Library, Darien, Connecticut
Advancing the development of community is a core mission for libraries of all types. Communities of practice support growth and development for library workers. Social media promises assistance in both. Social media can, however, also be confusing, both in technicalities but also with understanding how people will react to different approaches. Using Social Media to Build Library Communities provides pragmatic and sensible strategies for libraries to realize the potential of social media to extend and transform community engagement. -- Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Just like the best social media, this book offers a blend of personal insight with professional expertise. The contributors are all practitioners and offer best practices for all types of platforms and libraries. This will be essential reading for any librarian, even those who are already social media experts. -- Margaret Heller, digital services librarian, Loyola University Chicago
The eight case studies featured here provide a refreshingly honest look at the challenges of building an online community. Tips are given on how to approach audience research and engagement, but the true jewel is how internal workflows were established to support the time-intensive need of feeding the social media beast. -- Amanda L. Goodman, publicity manager, Darien Library, Darien, Connecticut
Just like the best social media, this book offers a blend of personal insight with professional expertise. The contributors are all practitioners and offer best practices for all types of platforms and libraries. This will be essential reading for any librarian, even those who are already social media experts. -- Margaret Heller, digital services librarian, Loyola University Chicago

Author Bio

Scott W. H. Young is an Assistant Professor and Digital Initiatives Librarian at Montana State University Library. He has published and presented on user experience, participatory design, social media, and web privacy. Doralyn Rossmann is an Associate Professor, Administrative Director of Data Infrastructure & Scholarly Communication (DISC), and Head of Collection Development at Montana State University Library. Her recent research includes presentations and publications in public budgeting, library-vendor relations, and social media including ethics, optimization, and community building.