Make your library seem like you give a hoot...

This week for a class we students were pointed to a few library MySpace and Facebook pages.  Some of the links didn't work.  Some of the profiles were last updated last year.  Some pages had practically no information on them...made me wonder why the library bothered to sign up for an account.  Some pages actually looked nice, conveyed interesting information and a pleasant layout, and was recently updated!

Let's just give a shout out to Hennepin County Public Library, this week's big winner [in a list of losers...I so hope this list is not representative of North American libraries in general]!

If I'm ever in charge of my library's social media presence, here's a few things I'm going do based on what I saw this week:

• post all library events on my wall or notes page so people know what's happening NOW 
• take crazy photos of the library, the signage, the people, the seasons changing, cool book displays, events, construction, rare books, 
• (Okay, now a shout out to my alma mater, University of Regina Dr. John Archer Library!  Woo!  Archer posted some great photos of their book displays--my favorites were the staff picks with neat props!)
• I'm not going to put on a bunch of photos that only mean something to library staff...okay, I will, but in a separate album, and maybe make it private.  Students don't want to sort thru that stuff.
• the best contact info, directions to our library, opening hours, and other websites are going in our profile
• link to the FB pages of our community partners: other libraries (yes, let's work together), schools, theaters, charities, professional associations...whatever might interest our patrons (and NOT get me in trouble.  But I'm not going to think about it too much).
• I will want to put pictures of staff on our site and outline what they do.  I might get some flack on this, but I can make a case for this being an awesome idea.  As a library user, I love this kind of stuff.
• Rude comments are going to be erased.  I'm creating a safe place here.
• I saw a search field...people can search their OPAC on Facebook?  Even if you get redirected to the library's webpage for results, that's still a cool idea, IMHO!
• I'm going to keep it light, fun, informative, pretty...like me.  IMHO!