Libraries and Social Media

There are a lot of librarian technophiles - it pretty much goes with the territory these days. The favourite anecdote of a former colleague - our resident IT systems expert - was being asked: "Why don't you use ISBNs as the barcode for issuing books?"

...and being able to reply: "Because we had our catalogue on the computer before ISBNs were invented."

Geeky, but true.

Anyway, us librarians have been big fans of the web pretty much since it started. We've put our catalogues online, supplied our journals online, and we're trying to put our books online (someone give the publishers a nudge, please). So it's only natural that when all this talk of "Web 2.0" came along, we wanted to be involved.

Ever since, the library world has been awash with talk of why we all need to be on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. "It's a great way to talk to your users!" "You need to be where your users are!".

That is (speaking from an academic/medical library POV) a load of rubbish.

The important part of "social media" is the word "social". How many students or staff in the university really think to themselves: "You know what, I really want to join the library's Facebook group - I really think it will be interesting to have updates on what's happening in the library alongside pictures from last night's fun at the pub".

And even if they did join our group, how much do we actually have to say to them? How likely is it that you'll get even 2% of your target audience to join your Facebook group or Twitter feed if you only push out one update every couple of weeks? Especially if the most exciting update is: "Hey, we've just bought this great new book!".

I just don't see it.

If we're going to get on Facebook or Twitter, and make a meaningful go of it then we have to fulfill certain criteria:

• Have something interesting to say
• Be talkative - if you've gone a whole week without saying anything, you might as well not bother
• Have a personality - this is social media we're talking about here - if all you have to talk about is dry, corporate news then use the official library website: that's what it's there for

If you're going to use Facebook or Twitter, you'd better have a clear idea of what you want to use it for, how you'll use it, and what boundaries you'll operate within. And that is why (much as the idea interested me, and I wished we could talk to our users that way) I didn't think it was a medium that we could use effectively. Until...