Social Media Accounts! Just like everything else- there is the good, the bad, and the ugly! For our assignment, we were charged to find accounts that were applicable to the work of a librarian.
I am had a hard time finding school library pages on Facebook. I don’t think there are very many of them. According to my own teenagers, Facebook is “only for old people.” Most of the results for ‘school library’ were universities or community colleges. So I finally searched ‘middle school library,’ and I was more successful with that search.
I found several Texas middle school library pages, like South Belton Middle, Mendez Middle, and Spring Forest Middle. Their follower numbers ranged from 21 to 340. Some pages only boasted a few posts per semester, but there was one that seemed regularly engaged. South Belton Middle Library seems to post several times per week. It has some great posts about contests and projects the library was hosting. This page has 143 followers, but when I looked through the individual posts to see how many “likes” they received, it was not good! The most likes a post had was three, and the vast majority had no likes at all. There were no comments on any of the posts from the past few months.
Twitter is new terrain for me. My new librarian Twitter handle is @LivelyLibraryN. Colby Sharp is my new favorite person to follow on Twitter. Most of Sharp’s tweets are about the books that his 5th graders are reading! He manages much more than just a Twitter account; he also has a YouTube channel, a regular podcast and a his own website! He is a classroom teacher in Michigan. Needless to say, this man has a lot going on! He does a great job with quick blurbs about a lot of different types of books. His YouTube videos are cute and charming– he has a lot of enthusiasm!
The Ed Tech Twitter accounts vary. Many of the tweets of Schrock have been about FETC, which I found out is Future of Education Technology Conference. (I would love to attend this conference some day!) But the November and Braun accounts are not active currently. Gywneth Jones’s Twitter talks about gay night clubs, British baking shows and castles! I have not found much I can use in my library role there yet.
Comprehensive and practical overview of ChatGPT and its role in the classroom for both teaching and learning by @torreytrust in this open source slide deck. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vo9w4ftPx-rizdWyaYoB-pQ3DzK1n325OgDgXsnt0X0/edit#slide=id.p… #edtech #edchat
On Instagram, I have found several accounts from which I am learning! The first is myedtechlife by Espinoza. One of his posts had some great pointers on creating podcasts.
I have also enjoyed tannenbaumtech. Here is a video she posted about allowing younger students the opportunity to create with technology-
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Hi Michelle! I was surprised to find out that Facebook was just like your teen said, “only for old people.” I also had difficulty finding school library Facebook accounts, and sadly the only ones I found had very few followers and interaction. I’m also new to Twitter and found it user-friendly and a great application to use in a library. Social media is definitely a way to reach out to our community and inform them of what is happening in the library.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I think Facebook is still a good way to reach out the parents and guardians about news in the library. I agree that most school library pages are pretty quiet, which is a shame because I don't think a lot of parents are on Twitter or Instagram either. I guess as librarians we have to utilize all three to reach everyone! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle, I agree all social media has good and bad parts and sometimes even ugly bits. I completely agree with you about the importance of being engaged regularly. I too noticed that while some middle school libraries did have a couple hundred followers, the likes and comments per post were extremely minimal or nonexistent. I think we must stay current and be sure to involve our students so that we can be relevant. I also enjoyed Colby Sharp's Twitter feed and what he shares, such great content.
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