Social Media as Library Advocacy

By Colleen Graves

I often hear educators and librarians say, ”I don’t want to use Twitter.” “I don’t want my students on those types of accounts.” "How can social media help me in my library? It sounds like it's just extra work."  These are all valid concerns and questions that I've been thinking about all summer.  In response, I decided to explain how I use social media to address different audiences. Plus, detail how social media helps me get out the word about what is going on in my library on a daily basis.  We complain often about the librarian stereotype, what better way to change the stereotype than to showcase the awesome things we are doing in our libraries?  Our students are surrounded by negative social media, why don't we show them the power of a positive digital footprint?   Read on to find out how social media can help you in your #librarylife! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter by tweeting to @gravescolleen.

EDITORS: Colleen has given us permission to repost her August 15 thoughts on her Create + Collaborate, Innovate web page . This post explains the basics of how and why for several social media tools. Her second post from Aug. 19 reminds us WHY we might want to get more active using social media in our libraries with our students. Be sure to click on over - her images are excellent examples of her ideas, like the one below.

Colleen is currently Librarian at Ryan High School in Denton ISD. She was a co-finalist for School Library Journal’s 2015 School Librarian of the Year and was also named by Scholastic as one of the Top Ten School Librarians to follow on Twitter in 2014.

From Sue Fitz’s blog, Unpretentious Librarian