Managing Social Media in Libraries

Preface: make social media fit your library

Introduction

When I talk to people about social media, I am often asked an underhanded question. The question goes something like, “do you have any evidence for the number of people who use social media in libraries?” I have been asked this by researchers at conferences, reviewers of several of my manuscripts, and IT managers at my own campus. They say it with a touch of disdain. What they mean to say is, “no one reads blogs or cares about blogs.” They see Facebook as a place where high-school kids post concert photos. To them, social media are not serious.

Yet, if you read the library literature or attend library conferences, social media have at times been held up as the savior of libraries. Some ...