Week 5: How do you know if it's worth the time? What are metrics? Featured apps: Readers advisory tools: Shelfari, GoodReads, LibraryThing

Question of the week:  What kinds of social media apps do you think you might use in your library?  If you use some already, what ideas did you get for making better use of them?

Our library currently makes effective, public use of Facebook. We use it to share information and photos for our own events and programs, promote community activities, share articles and ideas and engage our online patrons in some library banter. I think that we could be more effective in using Facebook for simple promotion of new books and media. I really like the concept of the library widget for Shelfari and will definitely look into using it to promote new titles. I know that I need to be more effective and consistent in promoting ebooks. Yankton Community Library does a great job at this.  I could certainly look to include more posts that provide feedback from our patrons.

Currently, Dan and I both use GoodReads personally. I have started a shelf for my YA book club and any adult book club meetings that I host, but it is for my own reference. I know that I could look to GoodReads more often as an RA resource.  However, when it comes to an effective and public sharing tool for the library, I need to spend some time looking into Shelfari. I did discuss Goodreads with my teens as an effective way to track what they are reading and find more titles -- they (and I) find the app easy to use and especially like the function where you can scan ISBNs to add books to your list.

I like the idea of using Instagram in the library as well. I currently have a personal account that I use quite regularly. Our teens are Instagram nuts -- many of them have multiple accounts, and I think that it would be a fun way to reach them and track and share what's happening in their library world. I would certainly link this account to our facebook page, because I don't anticipate that many of our Facebook users are on Instagram.

In general, I will stay on the lookout for more library social media. I pay attention to what and how other libraries use and promote these applications, and this course has pushed me to do this more regularly, and to be more forward thinking when it comes to putting them to use in my library. There are lots of exciting prospects out there, and I look forward to exploring them further.