INF506 - Module 3 - Library 2.0 OLJ activity

OLJ - A-Z of social networked library

The following five points are considerations of how social networking needs to be embraced by our school library. These have been taken from Anna Laura Brown's A-Z of social networking for libraries, http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/

 A – Active

Inactivity could be seen as a sign of disinterest. By being active on the social networking elements of the library site, it shows that information is current and not stale. If you are not active and constantly updating your social media status then users will believe that you are not serious about your social network presence.

B – Blog

Maintaining a blog is a great and easy way to keep users up to date with information on the library. A blog would be the main element in my library’s social networking strategy as they are a great way to connect with students and encourage them to participate and contribute to discussions and ideas.

G – Good reads

The way that I get users through the doors of my primary school library is by providing high quality children’s literature that they want to read and explore. I share new acquisitions and encourage students to explore beyond their safety zone and implore them to recommend their favourite to others. Our OPAC users the review function so that users can write reviews and recommend books to each other. Using a blog or other web 2.0 feature would be a great way to inform students of new and exciting books/magazines/graphics that are available and would continue to foster the strength of our collection.

M – Mobile

The majority of our upper primary (year 5 & 6) students have access to a mobile device that accesses the internet (often at school). With the capability of phone and ipods to access the internet now a large amount of a students web access is happening on a mobile device. Therefore it is vital that our social network is accessible from such a device. It is also a goal to have out OPAC accessible from a mobile device.

R – Reference

With the increasing reliance on the internet as a source of information, it has raised the issue of effective referencing and education about copyright and plagiarism. Therefore, up to date and easy to follow information about referencing is necessary to be accessible for students.