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Dividing up the work of managing social networking channels

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Last fall the Library began using Twitter and Facebook to share news and information with students. The accounts had listed for a while, but their use was adhoc, with occasional updates from some of the librarians working virtual reference. Our communications officer (Merika) and I sat down and planned out how we could use these channels more effectively.

We started by using them to support our orientation program in the fall. In this we were assisted by a few other librarians, and we worked together to draft a number of posts, scheduled the publishing of those posts (using a shared calendar in Exchange), and shared the responsibility of posting the content to Twitter and Facebook at the appropriate times.

Once orientation was over, Merika and I continued to use the calendar to prepare a ‘pipeline’ of content for these feeds, and each of us continued to post more or less the same content to Twitter and Facebook.

We had some success with this approach, but still have a long way to go to get our number of followers up into the range where we are reaching the number of people we would like.

This year I thought we would try something different. Merika is on extended leave, and so over the coming academic year I’ll be sharing the social networking duties with our current communications officer, Sabrina. As it turns out, Sabrina is more comfortable using Twitter, and I spend far more time using Facebook, so I thought to myself: instead of us both posting the same content to each network, why don’t we each take one channel and post content independently?

Of course, we’re still both working from the same announcements and trying to promote the same services, so there is and will always be some overlap. But each of us is free to write up the posts as we see fit, allowing us to take advantage of the particularities of the platform. For example, you can post more text with Facebook and images can be included directly in the news feed. More importantly, though, is that I’m hoping that each of us might develop a different voice, so that people will get a better sense that there is an actual person behind the feed, not just some bit of script pushing content out to all channels.

There is a risk that the voices will be different, but I don’t think that is all that important, as long as they are within the same ‘brand envelope’, if you will. It is ok for people to discover that there are different people working at the Library! In fact, I think it is very important that people get a better sense of the actual people who work at the Library, that these people come to represent the Library.

As I’ve mentioned before, we need to use the web not only to make information available to our users, but to create connections between our users and the people in the library. I’m hoping that this small change in how we manage our social networks will contribute to making that happen.

P.S. Please feel free to follow the Library on either Facebook or Twitter and let us know how we are doing!

Using technology to create connections between students and librarians

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Like many academic libraries, we’re in the process of moving to a ‘single service point’ model in most (all?) of our branches, where instead of being scheduled to work at the reference desk librarians will be scheduled to be on call, only brought in if the question is one that requires a librarian’s assistance.

One of the risks of this change is that librarians will become further isolated from students. Out of sight, out of mind. This would be a problem if the reference desk was the primary means of interacting with students. While I do believe that the reference desk is a very important contact point, these days librarians have many more opportunities to contact and engage with students in ways that are potentially more meaningful and helpful for students.

Having said that, there is still a risk that librarians will retreat to their offices and focus on maintaining subject and course guides, on carrying out project work, committee work, research, writing, and getting published. All necessary things, of course, but ones which leave them invisible to the student population.

While librarians are clear on their responsibility to support students, this understanding may not be shared by students, as indicated by this quote [source] from a 2009 study of student behavior in and perceptions of academic libraries:

“Librarians are believed to do work unrelated to helping students, or work that, while possibly related to research, does not entitle students to relationships with them.”

All of the outreach work (or liaison work, as we call it) carried out by librarians helps to address this problem. Librarians who give information sessions during orientation or to specific classes are, in addition to teaching information literacy skills, helping to establish in students a more accurate perception of what librarians do and how they can help.

As a systems librarian, I don’t do much in the way of outreach. However, my team does have a major role to play in developing tools that librarians can use to interact with students in new ways. For example:

  • Our Library Blogs platform allows librarians to share updates, resources, and information seeking tips with their subject communities on an ongoing basis. These blogs can also give students a glimpse into the work of a librarian, and can show them how librarians are there to help them.
  • McGill’s new learning management system (Desire2Learn) has the potential of providing librarians with opportunities to interact with students directly in the context of their courses. We’re in the process of determining how best to accomplish this, specifically how to make course-specific resources available to students as efficiently as possible.
  • Librarian profile pages, not yet implemented on our site, can provide a richer online presence than our current listing of subject areas. Years ago (and before my time here) there was a concerted effort to reduce/remove the presence of librarians on the web site, and while at there may have been valid reasons for this approach, it is clear to me that we need to go in a different direction. Students, all people, are seeking human connections. Students want to interact with people, not with systems. Library profile pages will not only raise the profile of librarians on our site, but will provide students will a better understanding of who they are as librarians and as people.

These initiatives are just the beginning, and while none of them are on the cutting edge of librarianship, they are important initiatives that we’ve made a priority in our development plans. Anything we can do to establish a human presence on our web site will not only improve students’ perceptions of the website and the Library, but will also drive home to them that there are people here that are ready, willing, and able to help them succeed in their academic endeavors.

What tools do you think are most effective at creating connections between students and librarians? Share your thoughts in the comments below.