What I Did on My Winter Blogcation or All I Needed to Know About Libraries I Learned from Social Media Part One

Just as you can’t always judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a blog post by its title. Especially this one, because while not entirely true, it is somewhat misleading. Such is the nature of social media – clever, catchy and probably not worth your time. That would be the conventional wisdom speaking. Social media is ephemeral, shallow and not very serious. It takes a lot of time with producing measurable results. It is a fad, it’s fleeting. It’s for the young or anyone with too much time on their hands. It is a mythical place, a dangerous terrain peopled with trolls and fraught with uncertainty. Best stay away and spend more time worrying about how to deal with Kindles, i-Pads and e-books.

But wait. Maybe social media is just the opposite. It may actually contain the key that will unlock all of the doors. The doors to success. Patrons will come rushing through those doors straight to your open, loving arms. Budgets will be restored, staff will increase, resources will be in abundance. Professional dignity will be salvaged. Lives will be saved. All welcome the new Messiah – Social Media!

It’s hard to know what to think. Books and articles are written expounding upon each viewpoint. It’s confusing. Social media is commonplace and familiar, yet in the context of libraries, still quite new. The present of social media is uncertain and the future is equally unpredictable. Libraries tend to view social media with a combination of fear and excitement, almost like a wild, funny friend who could be the life of the party or end up causing your neighbors to call the cops. Is social media fun and accessible or is it too unruly and susceptible to factors out of our control? Where is the truth to be found?

I would say somewhere in the middle. Social media has tremendous potential to transform the library landscape. Platforms like Pinterest and Instagram have successfully tapped into our reliance on visual information as a new way of documenting who we are and Facebook has virtually become the outline for creating a sense of self, a personal branding, as it were. Technology has made access to social media immediate, easily accessible and perhaps addictive. What does this mean for libraries?

It’s not a cop out to say that no one knows for sure. Social media in general is likely here to stay for some. The staying power of the various forms are less certain (anyone remember MySpace?) I sense that some libraries view any new technology as potentially threatening, as somehow working toward putting themselves out of business. Which is why librarians must master the technology. Not only that, librarians need to become creators of new technology. What if librarians had created Facebook? Would it have flourished or died out? Will social media somehow, someday be incorporated or integrated into library instruction? Will the distinction between social media and specialized databases be blurred, or will they be successfully merged into a seamless whole? One thing is certain – social media in the library world raises more questions than can possibly be answered, at least in a unified voice.

And who is better equipped to answer questions? Librarians! It’s really in our hands.