Posts Tagged ‘ patrons ’

How social media can hurt your library

August 26, 2009
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How social media can hurt your library

We’ve all seen warnings and stories about people getting fired from their jobs because of status updates or photos on social medial sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. CNN is has a new one with some social networking don’ts 1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs 2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer 3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed First I think number 2 should include – “or coworkers”, really nothing good can come of that either. But the point I want to add for librarians (library workers) everywhere is 4. Don’t badmouth your customers. We all get frustrated, we all have bad days,  I understand that, but venting on social media sites isn’t the solution and it could cause real problems for your library.  Your customers may read what you wrote, they are more tech savvy than you give them credit for. In addition to some old fashioned hurt feelings this can lead to some real problems for your library. They could complain to someone at the library, which means staff will need to spend time dealing with this issue. They could email it all their friends or maybe the newspaper, this is

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Monitor your brand

June 15, 2009
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Carie Lewis has a great guide to monitoring your brand using iGoogle, it’s easy, free and most of us already have a Google account, plus it pulls all the information into one place. She includes 5 different categories: Brand – mentions of your name, including acronyms, misspellings, etc Current – issues that people are talking about that involve you right now Detractors – people you know don’t like you but talk about you Competition – people in the same space as you Staff – prominent people in your org, like your CEO And includes a great list of places you should monitoring: Google Alerts – I hope you know what they are and are already using them! Filtrbox – a paid monitoring service to make sure we catch everything Tweetmeme – tells you the most popular tweets about a subject Twitter Search – shows tweets containing a certain keyword (we don’t use this anymore because we use Tweetdeck separately) Technorati – shows blogs that mention certain keywords Blogpulse – another blog monitoring tool Digg – shows most popular articles on the web Boardreader – shows forum posts by keyword Some additional readings 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media Top

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“Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.”

June 4, 2009
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I’ve never been fortunate enough to hear Jessamyn West speak and based on Jenica’s notes from last week, I’m really missing out.  Some of my favorite bits The digital divide is real, and our system for technology education scales very badly.  There are economies of scale in most library work – processing 30 books does not take 30 times as long as processing one book – but teaching 30 people about the internet and computers takes 30 times longer than teaching one person.  Libraries have become the social safety net for many Americans to learn what the tech-savvy think of as remedial technology skills, but the project doesn’t scale. “We are living in a future that they are not that interested in.” “Librarianship both is and is not sexy.  Exploit that.  Go be secretly awesome.  Then tell someone.” These are some really good things to think about, but we’re supposed to do more than just think – “Go be secretly awesome.  Then tell someone.” Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later

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The Library is…

April 17, 2009
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The Library is…

For National Library Week we asked patrons what the library is to them. These are some of the responses so far, they go all around the pillar. I also took individual pictures of them, go look at them, they’re awesome! You have to forgive me this is one of the last chances I’ll have to brag about all the awesome things MRRL does and I’m extra proud since this was my idea! Some of my personal favorites Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

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Library Usage Will Go Up During a Recession – Management Are You Really Prepared?

January 9, 2009
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Library Usage Will Go Up During a Recession – Management Are You Really Prepared?

I’ve seen many news articles and video lately about usage of libraries increasing during a recession. I’ve personally noticed my library seems busier.  While many have celebrated the increase of use and the public attention we so rightly deserve, we also need to consider the down side.  Our funding might be cut, the public is less likely to approve bonds or tax levies to increase services, in some cases staff may be laid off.  Libraries are masters of doing more with less and we are really going to need that skill now. The other side of recession is that is causes stress.  Patrons are likely to be less happy about paying their fines and, in general, be a little more on edge.  Staff are aware of the news and what is happening, even those who feel secure in their jobs, have family and friends who have been affected. So why am I asking management if they are ready?  All of this stress means an increase in irritable, angry, demanding, stressed out patrons who are rubbing up against your irritable, angry, tired, stressed out staff.  See where I’m going with this? The one thing you can do is try to decrease the

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photo by Beth Tribe

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