Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Oh, my!

Facebook

I searched Facebook for school libraries and received limited results.  I was pleased to see that our district has an AISD School Libraries page but it had limited posts and even fewer likes or comments.  The page did not seem to receive much traffic.  Several of the pages that I looked at had not been updated in many years.  My daughter’s school, Ann Richard’s School for Young Woman Leaders, has a fairly active page.  It is updated a few times a month.  There were no recent comments or likes.  The Barbara Bush Middle School page is active but there were few likes and comments on the posts.  I feel that Facebook’s time has passed as a way to promote business or library.  I can see it as a way to reach parents but there are so many other ways that seem more effective.  The advantages that I see are that it is a familiar and easy to use format.  A disadvantage that I see is that there is a minimum age requirement to sign up for an account and you cannot browse without an account.  This would limit the audience that views the page.

Twitter
Twitter seems to be a more effective way to communicate with others.  You can find me at Melissa Atterberry @melatter1210  I like that you can share information that you find in a quick easy way.  Linda Braun @lbraun2000 tweeted information about assessing social and emotional skills without using an assessment

I like that you can retweet other ideas easily.  She shares technology articles and information.  Twitter’s feed is user friendly and many users update frequently.  You can browse information without having an account.

 Gwyneth Jones @GwenthJones tweets about activities at her school, books, articles, etc.  Her tweets are helpful and interesting.  I had a hard time not going down the rabbit hole!

The ways to use Twitter in the library are endless.  You could use it to promote special events and show what is happening in the library.  You could use it to highlight new books or what students are reading.  You could share articles with students, parents, and teachers as well as other librarians.

Instagram

I am new to posting on Instagram although I’ve been enjoying it for years.  My username is melatter1210.  I can see appeal of using Instagram as a way to interact with library patrons.  You could post pictures of what you are reading or post videos of activities that you do in the library.  Teachers could post what they are reading to encourage kids to read.  This would be a great platform to share maker projects or book fair.  I’ve dipped my toes into Instagram but need to really immerse myself.  One of my concerns would be how do you limit followers and their comments?

There are so many great platforms to share information with others.  The key is finding the one or ones that you are comfortable using and will use with fidelity.  If you set up the account but never use it, people will not use it as a resource. 

Feed Readers

RSS Reader Apps-

Before reading the article “The 10 Best Free RSS Reader Apps in 2018” by Vicky Volvovski, I was not aware that this helpful tool existed.  I signed up for a few to try them out and see what would be the best fit. 

The first one I tried out was Feedly.  It was easy to set up new feeds and search topics for things to follow.  Everything is neatly organized and easy to access.

NewsBlur was next.  Since NewsBlur focuses on news articles, this was not one that I tried out.  I was looking for something to more geared toward blogs and websites.

Inoreader looks like Pinterest and is as easy to use.  The search feature is intuitive and yielded results quickly.  Information is organized in tiles.  I should have skipping the step at the beginning where you pick things you were interested in following.  Now I am following things that I’d rather not.  I liked that I could sign up using my existing google account.

I didn’t get very far into The Old Reader.  There were auto-picked things for me already in my feed.  One bordered on pornographic, one was cars, one was about Frank Sinatra’s toilet!  That was as far as I got.  I’m sure that I could figure out how to delete the content and add my own but why?  I did not find it user friendly. 

FlowReader combines RSS feeds and social feeds.  I had a hard time finding things to follow.  I’m sure that they were there but my searches didn’t yield results.  I was able to follow Kirkus reviews but that was it.

All in all, I think that I will stick with Inoreader.  The easy of use makes it my top choice.  The format is familiar to me and I understand how to use it.

Volvovski, V. (2018, September 21). The 10 Best Free RSS Reader Apps in 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2n.d., from https://zapier.com/blog/best-rss-feed-reader-apps/#feedly

I’m following a number of blogs.  Here are five of them:

https://www.nypl.org/blog The New York Public library has been around for more than 100 years.  The blog highlights different areas of the library.  “So in addition to being on-the-beat reporters, taking the pulse of events and activities around NYPL with up-to-the-moment coverage, think of our bloggers also as deep sea divers, swimming down, flashlights in hand, exploring the library's vastness and bringing knowledge to the surface.”

https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/ A network of children’s and youth librarians, children’s literature experts, publishers, education and library school faculty members that write blog posts highlighting trends and information in the world of children and YA literature.

http://www.abbythelibrarian.com/  Abby Johnson, a southern Indian librarian, reviews books.  This blog has a focus on helping new librarians.

https://librarianbyday.net/ Bobbi Newman discusses library, technology, and innovation related topics.

https://www.slj.com/?subpage=blogs Blog posts that cover a variety of topics from the school library world.

I’m dipping my toe into Tumblr.  You can follow me at The Book Is Always Better thebookisalwaysbetteraustin.tumblr.com