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Feature Stories Google Alerts: Customized News in Your In-Box Ohio Libraries Using Social Media Sites (PDF) Ohio Library Council Unconventional Convention Ohio University’s Alden Library Uses Facebook to Connect with Community Social Media in 20 Bite-Sized Pieces Social Networking at Kent State University School of Library and Information Science |
By: Derek Malone, Library Associate, Alden Library & Lorraine Wochna, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Alden Library
The Ohio University Alden Library uses a variety of social media tools to reach our community – Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, and podcasts. We believe that we can reach more people with more tools. We never know who our patrons might be or what kind of tool is best for them, so having multiple social media tools is the best way to communicate.
The Alden Library Facebook page was created November 19, 2007. The page was preceded by a MySpace page; however, Facebook was growing rapidly at the time, so we saw fit to create a Facebook page to communicate with and engage our patrons.
Over the last two years we have grown to nearly 500 fans (followers). We have the ability to communicate with these fans in a variety of ways. For example, we can post a status on the page that will show up in our fans’ News Feed. They're also able to post on our wall in order to communicate with us.
We have also created a link between the Facebook page status and our Alden Library Twitter feed (@AldenLibrary). In this way we're able to tweet and update our status with the same message.
On the Boxes tab, we offer a variety of options to our patrons. Patrons are able to chat with a librarian through our Meebo widget and search either our ALICE catalog or the OhioLINK catalog through embedded widgets.
We are just beginning to use the Photos tab. At first we would like to highlight our staff so that users can see who we are and how we look “in action.” At present we also have an album titled “Behind the Scenes: OhioLINK books.” The album contains photos of the PCIRC process.
Our Info tab is a convenient location for important, but simple, library information, including hours, phone numbers, and the address of Alden Library.
The Video tab is currently being used to advertise our VidHelp service. This consists of short “how-to” videos created to give patrons other means to answer their questions. These videos are also located on our webpage and are used in a variety of places on our websites.
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