I started a practice of posting library happenings and photos on Facebook about four years ago. This activity has greatly changed our learning community's perception of the library program. In March 2014, we started blogging about library activities and programming. I followed up these social media activities by becoming active on Twitter in August 2014. Our library team also enjoys using YouTube and Edmodo as avenues of social media outreach. These methods have become a consistent practice to share about what we do in the school library. Let’s explore some of the ways each of the following social media formats have positively impacted our program.

Facebook

I originally started posting library activities on my personal Facebook page. It was a perfect place to post photos and information about our various library programs since I don't share very much personal information on my Facebook page. The response over the past several years has been very encouraging. Many friends, family, and colleagues get a closer look at what we do in the library each time I post. I also started a Lakeside High School Library Facebook page a few years ago. We encourage our teachers and students to join the library Facebook page. Last year, I started using Facebook to upload library videos and blog post links for our learning community to view. As a result of this practice, I have connected with many school librarians in the United States and other countries!

Blogging

Blogging has been a wonderful reflective practice for me. This is a great place to have a record of our numerous library services in action! Our administrators, teachers, and other stakeholders can read about many of our library activities. This blog has helped change their perspectives about the overall role of the school library program. I love the fact that the blog is searchable (both within the blog and via Internet search engines). As an outcome of being a blogger, I have made many new connections with educators. I enjoy sharing our blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Google + Communities. By growing this network, I am connected with more innovative educators which helps us improve our library program for students!

Twitter

Twitter continues to help me connect with educators around the nation and world. Earlier this school year, I was invited to participate in a Google Hangout with a panel of educators in Canada, Florida, and Rio de Janeiro. We all discussed the impact of being connected educators through social media in front of a Canadian college class via webcam. Arranging these types of connections would be very unlikely if not for social media. This is only the beginning of such international possibilities for our students. What a rich experience these global activities provide for our students and teachers! Our hope is to connect the school library to students and teachers in other countries this year. I can't wait to see what happens next!

YouTube

We have been experimenting with YouTube over the past year. We started a YouTube “LibraryGuyz” channel for the purpose of creating school library video advertisements and instructional videos. We typically use iMovie or Microsoft Movie Maker when creating videos. Both of these video editors allow the user to upload their completed video file directly to YouTube.

Edmodo

Our school began using Edmodo several years ago as a secure social media for the classroom. Our high school teachers create Edmodo groups for their classes. They post assignments, digital materials, and other resources for student use. Edmodo has the look and feel of Facebook which makes it easy for both students and parents to navigate. We decided to create an Edmodo group for the library. Students that have joined this group enjoy seeing photos of library events and collaborations. We also use it as a place to share library resources and happenings (instructional videos on database access, advertisements about library programming, etc).  

Conclusion

By consistently using each of these social media tools to advertise the value of our library program, we also model best practices for our stakeholders and students. Our learners need to see digital citizenship techniques taught and modeled by our school. I can't think of a better place to provide these skills than from the school library!

Publicly available links:

Library Guyz YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIghL7sH8WnoJdTX9nKnhmQ

Stony Evans’ Personal/ Professional Facebook.​

Facebook Group: Lakeside High School Library Media Center

Lakeside High School Library Twitter Account: @LHS_Library1