As
I scrolled through the pages, I noticed there are not many public school
library Facebook pages. There were a few elementary and middle school. The
majority were high school library pages.
Their
posts consisted of photos of resources their library offers, photos of student
involvement within the library (battle of the books/students using the
library), helpful links for students on proper citations and determining
credible sources, upcoming events, and book recommendations. There aren’t many
comments, the most comments I saw was 6 on one post. Other posts had about 2 or
3, very limited.
Using
Facebook for a public school library can help promote use of the school library
with other students. This is a social media platform students are using,
therefore if they see pictures of what can be offered and what happening in the
library can spark interest in some students. On the other hand, creating and
keeping up with posts can be time consuming and if students are not utilizing
the page, it can turn in to more work for the school librarian. The school librarian
may use the time on something else. Students do take notice when things are not
kept up with. The posts on Facebook are dated and if they see the last post was
a while back, they may lose interest and not seek the page ever again. With
other social media applications arising, I do believe the popularity of
Facebook is slowly diminishing. Students are interested in the lasts apps, and
Facebook has been around for a while.
Twitter
Kathy Schrock
Her tweets are mainly her original posts that offer an array of
technology resources that teachers and librarians can implement in the
classroom or library, information on her upcoming conferences, and other
retweets promoting authors and their books.
@kathyschrock Twitter Link
Linda Braun
Ms. Braun offers her followers links to newsletters and articles
discussing the society’s latest issues, reposts tweets for the opportunity to
attend conferences, and tweets that consist of ways we can improve our
libraries to better meet the needs of our students. Her followers can tell she
is a true advocate for teens as she follows and retweets from organization for the
youth.
@lbraun2000 Twitter Link
Alan
November
Mr. November proposes tweets that offer great advice to teachers
on their roles and the roles of our students. They are interesting to read and
make you rethink your own teaching procedures. He promotes creativity and
critical thinking skills through his tweets and retweets, which are conferences
he presents or links he provides to his followers.
@globalearner Twitter Link
Daring Librarian
Ms. Jones tweets/retweets are a breath of fresh air. She offers her followers humorous tweets (we can all use them from time to time), great resources for the classroom and libraries and teacher technology tips and teacher tips in general. I also notice she uses her account to promote her school library. There were a few tweets on first days of school to information on the tech desk help resource. Twitter can definitely be a social media contender to promote a school and school librarian. My school is an avid user of Twitter.
@gwynethjones Twitter Link
Jim Lerman
Wow! His twitter account and scoop.it link offers many beneficial teacher resources. I have already found a couple of potential resources to use in my class! Aside from resources he also tweets about technology and teacher advice. In the times we find ourselves in with virtual teaching, there are many resources for us to learn from and implement in our virtual classes.
@jimlerman Twitter Link
Instagram
Instagram offers plenty learning opportunities for students especially after reading blog post provided by Dr. Gross. I do believe this application would be a great asset in the classroom used for middle school and upper grade levels. Since Instagram’s platform is videos and pictures, this would also be a great way to promote our school libraries. Besides Twitter, this seems to be favorable amongst middle school and high school students. I am excited to say I was able to include picture with text and create a highlights section! I am a newbie to Instagram, please bare with me!
