So Much Social Media, So Little Time: Using Social Media Strategically to Build Community

Presentation slidesLibraries of all types are increasingly using social media to reach the communities they serve – whether that is the public, company employees, or students at a k-12 school or a university. While social media can be useful in making the library more visible to these communities if used strategically, it is a technology that is in a constant state of evolution and reinvention. So how do libraries keep up? More than that, how do they leverage this online technology to build a greater sense of community in their real life populations? This session will explore all these questions and more

Don\u27t Call It a Comeback: Popular Reading Collections in Academic Libraries

Despite the persisting notion that recreational reading does not have a place in the academic mission of college and university libraries, these libraries have a long history of providing pleasure reading for their patrons. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the idea of academic libraries meeting the recreational reading needs of students seems to have fallen out of favor, but a literature review of that time period shows that the collections themselves still existed. Discussion of—and justifications for—these collections, however, has enjoyed a resurgence in the library literature over the past decade. Given this renewed interest, this study seeks to assess just how common these collections are in US academic libraries today, and whether or not they are, in fact, enjoying a comeback from previous decades. This study surveyed the thirty-nine academic libraries that make up the Orbis Cascade Alliance in the Pacific Northwest, a diverse group of libraries in terms of size, type, budget, and student populations. The results of the survey show that a majority of libraries have a recreational collection and that these collections are valued by patrons and librarians alike. Recommendations are made for shifting the perspective on popular reading collections and their place in academic libraries, as well as for how to study them in the future

Taking the Slow Books Revolution Online: Virtual Readers\u27 Advisory in the Academic Library

The Slow Book Revolution is about encouraging narrative-length, self-directed reading without distractions – reading that is sustained and requires critical thinking and creativity. College students, one of the least read populations in the country, should be encouraged to spend their leisure time absorbed in a dialogue with a good book. Who better to guide this age group toward good books and slow reading than the academic librarians that interact with them every day? This lightning talk will discuss the place of readers’ advisory in academic libraries and effective ways to promote recreational books and encourage a culture of reading on campus through online tools such as blogs, social media, and library websites

The Digital Embedded Librarian: Social Media and Library Instruction

Students are constantly connected to social networks. Instead of fighting to keep these potential distractions out of the classroom, a professor and a librarian at Western Oregon University embraced them, harnessing their power to increase student engagement. The result? Student collaboration and participation skyrocketed, and information literacy instruction was more meaningfully integrated. Find out how intentional use of social media could help you sustainably expand your reach into the classroom beyond the one-shot instruction session

Sustaining Curiosity: Programs for Developing Lifelong Readers

The revised information literacy standards emphasize students as creators, and not just consumers, of information. Yet, so accustomed to supporting their classroom work, academic libraries have done little to help students develop an instinct for encountering information through self-directed curiosity. In this panel, learn how librarians are helping students develop this instinct through recreational reading promotion. Use and adapt these program and outreach ideas in order to better meet your academic library’s information literacy mission