Been There, Pinned That

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(Original source for the meme: Hyperbole and a Half)

For week five, we explored the use of images via the Pinterest site. I'm fairly familiar with Pinterest as a tool for professional development and presented on the topic at our regional staff development day in 2012. I think Pinterest has a lot to offer librarians, particularly if they offer storytime programs for children. Since I've already done some research in the area, I thought I'd provide some of the highlights here.

For those of you new to the site, Pinterest is a website that allows users to “pin” images—either user created or web based—to online bulletin boards. It allows you to create theme-based photo collections.

Pinterest is typically used by individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations. 68% of Pinterest users are women and half of all Pinterest users are between the ages of 25-44. Let’s relate these last two stats to your digital library. According to a 2010 OverDrive survey, 74% of virtual branch users are female between the ages of 30-59. Your patrons are using Pinterest, and you can use it  as one of a number of tools that help you engage with them.

A quick search of the term “library” under people in Pinterest shows us hundreds of libraries are hosting online Pinterest bulletin boards: http://pinterest.com/search/people/?q=library.

So why are they using it?

o   To bookmark useful sites for future use (because you see a photo instead of a long link, you quickly remember why you thought it was interesting)

o   To make your library more visible and connect with the public

o   To connect with children and teens

The site can be used individually, collaboratively, or at the library level. Within Pinterest you can create a collaborative board and invite others to pin to the board. In the AWK Region, the Public Services Librarian, Moncton Public Library, the Regional Office and the Manager of the Salisbury Public Library all contribute to their “Storytime” board.


How Do Libraries Use Pinterest?

·         Pin book covers. Many libraries feature the covers of new books. Looking to boost non-fiction circulation? Research books and narrative nonfiction can get a boost from being pinned.

·         Create reading lists. Pinterest is a great reader’s advisory tool. Encourage people to try new books by creating a topic-specific list (ex. If you liked Harry Potter, Olympic Books etc.) Read-alike lists for popular books such as the Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey are great Pinterest boards. Or how about Staff Picks? “What NYPL is Reading” contains reading recommendations by NYPL librarians. Or you can showcase a collection, like Edmonton Public Libraries’ “Aboriginal Collection at EPL” or Skokie Public Library’s “It’s Your Business” (resources to help you start or run your small business).

·         Show off your library. Pin photos to a board to show off decorations or renovations. “NYPL Photos” showcases cool photos of the library, such as engagement shoots, weddings, evidence of ghostly presences, and shots by local photographers. Or you could create an inspiration board for future renovations like they did here in AWK.

·         Share your archival material. At Skokie (IL) Public Library, the “Skokie History” board, which focuses on buildings, people and events from the history of the village, is one of the most popular boards.

·         Get new ideas for library displays. There are thousands of photos on every topic you can imagine!

·         Collect ideas for/advertise programs., Edmonton Public Library advertises their movie nights by posting pictures of the movie posters on their “EPL Film Series” board. A great event to promote is, of course, the author visit. Why not pin book covers, author photos, and author interviews to advertise that upcoming author visit?

·         Draw attention to your local community. Since your library constantly interacts with your local community, showcase local attractions to build a feeling of community and encourage others to visit. Because being a community center is an important aspect of a library’s mission, boards that promote your community are great for libraries starting out on Pinterest. Ann Arbor (MI) Library has a fantastic board featuring all the sights and sounds that make up amazing Ann Arbor. The Watertown (WI) Public Library has a board for their homegrown talent, which introduces local artists and authors—some even from the library’s staff!

·         Share craft projects. In the York region, we shared superhero-themed ideas for the 2012 Summer Reading Club at Library-SRC 2012-Superheroes.

·         Connect to other libraries. Build a community where you can share ideas and help each other to grow and improve.

·         Encourage book clubs. A board for all the year’s upcoming book-club selections provides great exposure to your upcoming reads and might even attract new members to your discussions. Since we offer book club in a bag kits, why not make a board for all those titles you have available for your local book groups to check out?

·         Interact with patrons. “Books to Read,” “Books Worth Reading,” and “Books I Am Reading” are all popular board names. How wonderful if your patrons’ pins all linked back to your catalog! Or you could emulate NYPL and create a “What Are You Reading” board where patrons can pin their current titles.

Closing Thoughts

Copyright: You avoid any issue by posting original images but keep in mind when posting photos you did not take yourself:

o   The images being used are larger than thumbnails (which case law has shown are acceptable to use without specific permission).

o   The Pinterest user agreement says that users should only post that which they have copyright permission to post. And the company that owns Pinterest absolves itself of any liability.

o   Give credit to the author of the photo and always link to the original source of the image (http://linkwithlove.typepad.com/linkwithlove/how-it-works.html)

Best Practices

o   Link your Facebook or Twitter account to your Pinterest account to quickly gain followers.

o   Add Pinterest ‘Pin It’ buttons to your website or blog. Similarly, add a ‘Follow us on Pinterest’ hyperlink to your email signatures.

o   Like and comment on other people’s pins.

o   Follow users in your community and repin others’ pins.

o   Tag others in your pins by using @username.

Resources:

http://www.booklistonline.com/Pinterest-as-a-Readers-Advisory-Tool-Lynnanne-Pearson/pid=5564484

http://overdriveblogs.com/library/2012/04/09/marketing-idea-promote-your-library-on-pinterest/

http://www.librarymarketingtoolkit.com/2012/06/pinterest-101-primer-for-libraries.html

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2012/5-ways-to-use-pinterest-in-your-library/

http://www.slaw.ca/2012/02/27/new-social-media-darling-pinterest-and-copyright-law/

And on the lighter side of things: http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com

25 Libraries We Most Love on Pinterest: http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/25-libraries-we-most-love-on-pinterest#.UCpYq6CqY1I

http://brookline.patch.com/blog_posts/pinterest-copyright-and-the-library

http://stephenslighthouse.com/2012/08/17/25-libraries-we-most-love-on-pinterest/

I heardle we're using Wordle

While exploring the use of images and the proper use of attribution, we discussed the use of Wordle for creating word clouds. I decided to try my hand at it using popular classic titles of children's literature.


I found I wasn't wild about the platform because the image it generates isn't high resolution and the site itself isn't searchable. Yes, you heard me correctly, a Google hosted image site has no search capability.

From their help page:
"Wordle is a Google App Engine application. That means that the Wordle web site depends on the capabilities provided by the GAE platform for everything it can do, including saving and retrieving the Wordles you create, storing the thumbnail images, etc. Unfortunately—and surprisingly, considering the fact that it's Google we're talking about—GAE does not provide the capability to index and search for text in saved data."

Helpful user hint: If you're creating lists where there are spaces between some of the words (ex. Anne of Green Gables) that you want to treat as a single unit, you can use the tilde character (~) between words that go together. The tilde will be converted to a space when drawing the words, and the words will be treated as a single word.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize until after I'd typed my list that Wordle will treat each word typed as a separate unit. I created my document only to find that Where was located in a different place than the, Wild, Things, and Are. I hit backspace to return to the create page and discovered this leads you to the initial blank slate and not the words you'd provided. So, realizing I hadn't copied the text I entered, I set about re-typing all my titles into the box.

Renovations for librarians

The reno shows have it all wrong.

This is an addition worth having.

Attribution: WH Pyne [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

The Giddiness of Lists

"And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs..." Umberto Eco

This week's things encompassed four tasks, which were collectively grouped under the heading of "social reading," the basic idea being that in contemporary society we have moved from in-person discussions of reading to an online format that capitalizes on the sharing feature so characteristic of today's social media.

Essentially, we were to create a user profile in our library catalogue, create a list of items using the social sharing features of said catalogue, comment upon books in the catalogue, and then find users with similar interests and follow them so that we can hear more of their recommendations in the future.

I'm torn. I am enthusiastic about the ability of social media to connect us to others we would never otherwise normally meet, for instance, I followed a woman in Edmonton whose views on economics mirrored my own. However, I question whether there is any real connection made by following someone with whom you will never dicuss a title face-to-face.

One suggested use of social reading was to join Goodreads, where you can rate and review titles and "find out what your friends are reading." I can do that by asking them. I meet with a lovely group of ladies every six weeks to laugh, eat, drink, and for at least a brief period of time discuss a title one of us has selected. It's a time to bond and share and resonates with a richness that I find lacking in online "sharing." To me, sharing involves a back and forth, a give and take, rather than a list of all the books I personally read and all the thoughts I personally think. 

 

 

I can appreciate the reader's advisory aspect of these sites, as in "I found someone who thinks similarly to me and therefore I'll give a title they liked a whirl." We want lists to tell us what to read because they help us avoid information overload. In an era where the internet has made it possible to access books from most of the world's archives and libraries, countless magazines and newspaper articles, as well as a litany of self-published titles, we want someone to direct us through the limitless abundance of information in our time. However, sometimes the best part of reading a title recommended by someone whose reading interests lay outside your comfort zone is discovering you like something you didn't previously know you enjoyed.

 

I am fascinated by the listing aspect so prevalent on sharing sites and on the internet in general. Want to know 10 tips to survive a zombie apocalypse? A quick Google search returns 353,000 such lists populating the internet. The Top 10 superfoods nets you a cool 7,530,000 results. If you want to go a little meta you can even find lists of quotes about why people like lists: http://www.buzzfeed.com/aaronc13/7-quotes-from-author-umberto-eco-on-why-people-love-lists

 

Umberto Eco points out that the open-ended quality of lists hints at an infinity that draws us in and dazzles us but also notes lists can be dangerous because they embody control and exclusion. As a student of English literature in my younger days I learned that by saying "these are important books," we create an unintentional binary that implies there are books that need not be read, titles that are less deserving of our finite time and energy.

 

For my part this week, I created a list of titles that The American Library Association announced as the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults. The intended result is that I will read the award winners and further my professional knowledge base as a Children's Librarian but the unintended effect is that, like a ripple radiating outward from a stone splashing into water, I reinforce a hierarchy of books without examining at a deeper level the awards committee and any biases they may have (for instance, perhaps it's worth noting in the list description that only titles considered American are in the running as the top books for youth). It's a double-edged sword: these are quality books that I would like to read, and like-minded individuals may wish to be pointed in their direction, but by repeating the notion that these titles are worthy of attention I also unconsciously redirect people away from equally wonderful books written at home and abroad. 

 

Eco sees the list as a creator of culture, visible across history and throughout literature, but he is also very aware that lists pin things down and give an artificial sense of permanency when everything in life is constantly changing. I would venture to say that creating lists and sharing recommendations is both a blessing and a curse. We are each of us changing every day we wake and breathe and process our worlds, and recommendations simultaneously cage us and set us free. I have always been a fan of reading reactions to canonical literature but also knowing the books to which they are reacting. So I suppose my take-home lesson from this week's activities is that social reading serves a purpose, although it is one that should be questioned and interrogated from time to time to see if it is indeed serving us well or misleading us, based on the sum total of who we are at that moment. All I know is that in less than two weeks I'll be exercising my Luddite ways and celebrating good books, good wine, and good companionship--in person--while discussing The Rosie Project with the gals.

 

 

#Twitter

"If you haven't been bookmarked, retweeted and blogged /
You might as well not have existed"
-From The Twitter Song by Ben Walker

Have you seen Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake poking fun at the Hashtag phenomenon? Ever wondered what that was all about?

Time to start tweeting. #GetWithTheProgram

People have a misconception that Twitter is all about navel-gazing. Don't get me wrong, if you want to see people discuss the minutiae of their lives, you can. You can also watch your favourite stars self-destruct in a string of messages at 3:00 a.m. that are quickly deleted by their publicists. However, you can also find out about concerts, restaurant specials, events (#FredKidFair), and weather in real-time reports. No need to wait for the papers to roll off the press when something occurs in your community, although I'd still advise reading a newspaper for fuller, more nuanced coverage. And if you want to know what the road conditions are like during the next polar vortex, I guarantee many car passengers (hopefully not the drivers) have used their cell phones to post photos and updates on the very highways you hope to travel. #roadconditions

Twitter is also a place to find special extras, the kind that you used to have to join fan clubs to get. For instance, if you were one of the people following Sesame Street you would have had a sneak peek at the upcoming One Direction video made for the show. Almost 17,000 fans favourited the tweet. #Adorbs

Professionally, Twitter allows you to keep up-to-date on your favourite publishing houses and suppliers, see what titles they're touting, and be first in line to get their newest and most sought-after offerings, so that you can have them ready and waiting when people come through the doors looking for the next big thing. #50Shades

Twitter is a great place for connecting with your community. When we started the Fredericton Public Library Twitter account we found we were forming more substantial relationships with local businesses, local bloggers, City Departments, our Chamber of Commerce, Fredericton Tourism, the Fire Department, our local theatre, and our city councillors. We found more people thought of us as a community member because they saw us participating and engaged us in conversations we would not have had otherwise. #WeLoveLibraries

When we partnered with local businesses everyone was excited to cross-publicize related tweets. This was doubly great because once a message has been sent into the Twitter-sphere, followers of the person tweeting can choose to "re-tweet" to their followers, so that the message carries a farther reach than you would have had on your own, reaching out to only those people who have followed your account. For instance, on December 5th we tweeted that the Saint John String Quartet would be with us and five people chose to send that note out to their followers. The people who retweeted (FredKid, Brunswick Baby, Tim Sarty, Peter Cullen and Cheryl Norrad) had 421, 67, 128, 161, and 336 followers respectively, meaning that we could potentially reach 713 new people in addition to our regular followers (although obviously there will likely be some audience cross-over). #CompoundingAtWork

Another great example of Twitter at work during programming occurred when artist Donna Mulholland created a painting live in our lobby, and she tweeted time lapse photos of the live art event as well as tweeting the finished product. #PowerOfSocialMedia

It has been absolutely lovely getting to know our patrons on this platform. We have one regular visitor, a three-year-old named Isabelle, who writes about her library experiences with her daddy's help, including setting up her own library at home! And we would never have known that a very important summit occurred in the Children's Department if Jon Holt hadn't alerted us to the fact! It is a fun way to get feedback about programs directly from patrons as well, such as praise for cookie baking skills or the housewarming party we hosted to celebrate the newly renovated Children's space. #YouFolksAreAwesome

Twitter is also a useful tool for connecting with other libraries and librarians. We follow and are followed by libraries in our region, libraries from elsewhere in the province, libraries from other provinces, and libraries across North America. It is fascinating to glimpse their program offerings and see the messages communicated to and from the libraries and their patrons. #ProfessionalDevelopment

So I hope I've blown your mind discussing how Twitter can prove useful to you in your personal and professional life. It's not all narcissism...maybe only 70%. #TrustMe

P.S. Courtesy of Twitter: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to categorize Tweets by  keywords or topics. People use the symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.

Random Thought:
When Blogger asks you to "prove you are not a robot" and you can't make out what the letters supposedly resemble, does that mean you've failed the task? Have I been sent from the future to protect John Connor?

Photo of the Week



A much better use for your closet space than designer shoes. Oh, all right, at least 50-50.

Book Nook

Designer: Susan Jay Design www.susanjaydesign.com

Source: Houzz http://www.houzz.com/photos/44751/Book-Nook-traditional-family-room-los-angeles