Connecting the Stacks

                                                                  (courtesy of Forbes article ) Most teen librarians I know are constantly navigating the evolving digital environments that shape how young people gather, learn, and express themselves.  One platform they often gravitate toward is Reddit -  an open, decentralized forum where users can create or join “subreddits” on virtually any topic imaginable. While this structure promotes community empowerment and diverse dialogue, it also poses serious risks , particularly when it comes to misinformation and hate speech, and particularly the type of hate speech that has come with the current Trump administration and its anti-immigrant policies and social media campaigns . Unlike centralized platforms that enforce uniform content ru...

  Librarians are aware of using the CRAAP test (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose) when checking websites for authenticity and truthfulness. However, it may be helpful for the layperson to consider these factors when viewing social media posts. Readers should ask themselves, Is the information current? Is it a recent event? Just yesterday, I came across an Instagram reel on TikTok with images of Hurricane Melissa heading to New York. After careful evaluation, I realized that the image was indeed showing a storm track, but it was of Hurricane Ida from 2021 – certainly not current. The fear-mongering is rampant! Moving on through the CRAAP test checklist, I then considered whether the post was relevant. Well, it certainly was as Hurricane Melissa had just made landfall on Jamaica. I had been clicking on many images of the hurricane, and the algorithms caught up with me, showing me storm information on every other post. Evaluating the authority of any information s...

  When the world essentially shut down in 2020, many of us instinctively flocked to social media, places like Facebook and YouTube, looking for answers, connection, and even a little distraction. Unfortunately, the same apps we used for comfort quickly turned into perfect breeding grounds for misinformation. A review by Ferreira Caceres et al. (2022) found that COVID-19 misinformation directly contributed to vaccine avoidance, mask refusal, and the use of unproven treatments, ultimately increasing illness and death worldwide. The researchers described this as an “infodemic", or an overabundance of false or misleading information that complicated public health efforts and deepened mistrust in science and government. When millions of people rely on social media as their primary source of information, this kind of distortion becomes not just a communications issue, but a public health crisis. While my personal feed didn't showcase the worst of it, I definitely remember seeing co...

Image source from this article  So, does anyone remember Balloon Boy? Here's a quick refresher , but in short: back in ye olden times (2009AD), Colorado couple Richard and Mayumi Heene claimed that their six year old son, Falcon, had climbed into a homemade helium saucer that had torn loose from its moorings and was now airborne. I vaguely remember my 11 year old self being glued to the TV, scarcely able to believe that this poor kid was trapped in an out of control balloon (the same way 10-year old me had, several months before, stared in disbelief at US Airways Flight 1549 adrift in the Hudson...what a year 2009 was). When the balloon--tracked by multiple helicopters--finally landed, Falcon wasn't inside. People feared the worst, until it was revealed that he'd never actually been inside. The kid, now christened "Balloon Boy", had in fact been hiding in the attic the entire time--the whole thing had been a publicity stunt. What happened to the Heenes afterward i...

  Image Source If you work at a library, consider for a moment who is in charge of marketing. Is it someone who was hired with marketing in their job description? A dedicated marketing manager? Or is it someone who sort of fell into the marketing position? They just happened to be able to help out and it turned into a whole "thing"? That's the premise of the book The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey. According to Dempsey, the majority of library marketing staff are in that position by accident. They were not hired for marketing purposes, they simply started and could not stop. Maybe they just happened to be a younger staff member, familiar enough with Facebook and Instagram that their director asked them to start posting to socials occasionally. Or maybe someone with some free time offered to make some TikTok posts once or twice, and now they have to make content twice a week while their actual duties continue to pile up. This could even be the case outside of...

                                           (courtesy of the R.F. Sink Memorial Library ) In trying to better understand qualitative research methods for social media trends, I was thinking about the concept and scope of netnography - an ethnographic study of digital spaces. In an age where storytelling, identity, and community are increasingly unfolding online, netnography offers teen librarians a dynamic way to understand emerging trends amongst our patrons. One vibrant arena that quickly came to mind, given my experiences at my current library, is the world of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), where imagination, fandom, and social learning collide across platforms like TikTok, Discord, Reddit (and games even established through the website Meetup).  Using a netnographic lens, we librarians can observe how teens use D&D to explore identity, express creativity, and ev...

Blog Post #9: Altmetrics and Libraries By Madeline Feehan This week, we learned about the importance of altmetrics . Rather than just measuring a source's impact by the number of times it is cited, altmetrics consider other factors, such as the number of views, bookmarks, and discussions a post generates. It's known as "alternative" metrics because rather than just being judged by scholarly impact, these metrics judge by social impact and are more focused on non-traditional methods. To achieve good altmetrics, an organization needs to be an active participant on social media. We can use influencers as a guide, specifically ones within BookTok/the book community, to inspire our library's social media presence. Think about the tactics they use to generate clicks. Their posts are usually exciting, timely, and open the door for conversation. Instead of just using social media to spread information, libraries should view themselves as influencers and connect with the c...

  x If you've ever wished you could walk into the library dressed as your favorite superhero, wizard, villain, or oddly specific side character from a 1980s cartoon, Sayville Fan Fest is the day you have been waiting for!  In a much, much smaller style than Comic Con, for the fifth year in a row, our library transforms from a peaceful haven of books and quiet study into a full-blown celebration of pop culture, fandom, and creative chaos (the good kind). This year, the theme is Mario, and we will have RC car racing for the first time! We will also have a newly expanded retro arcade set up in one of our larger rooms, a board game expo, a gaming bus, a scavenger hunt, and much more!  This is the second year I have run a staff yard sale at the event, with all proceeds going to the Friends of Sayville Library. Last year was the first year I did it, and I took all donations from co-workers to see what would sell and what wouldn't. Well, a lot didn't sell lol, but we did make $1...

  Does your community have a large population of Spanish-speaking people? In the town of East Hampton, New York, Hispanic and Latino residents comprise 26.5 percent of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.). A side note here: for fluency of reading, the term Hispanic will be used throughout this blog to be inclusive of all Spanish-speaking cultures and countries. Department heads from the East Hampton Library have carefully considered creating or building the Spanish and bilingual book collections. Let’s dive into some thoughts they had before purchasing books for the collection. Since we know that nearly one quarter of the population is Hispanic, the adult, young adult, and children’s departments sought patron interest through bilingual questionnaires, with two of the significant questions focusing on book topics and genres. Knowledge of the types of books that the patrons desired helped to whittle down the choices. Next, the librarians surveyed various websites, including Soci...

  Image source The image above was posted by my current workplace, the New York Public Library (NYPL) during last year's funding advocacy campaign. Right, that. It was technically the cumulation of a 2 year fight to restore our funding in the face of proposed budget cuts and could--and did--result in many of our critical resources, such as Sunday services, being slashed. This image was posted as a response to the mayor's budget plan for 2024, which would have left us in dire straits-- here's its Instagram iteration, which gives a little more info. Now, good news: our funding was ultimately restored and will be for the foreseeable future, in no small part due to the tireless efforts of both the library and the public to advocate for us. As I don't have personal overview of our social media accounts, I can't say a ton about the logistics of promoting our advocacy campaigns. Our continuing discussion of social media analytics, however, has me brainstorming a few poten...

Image source: ClimbContent   Blog Post #8: AI- To Use or Not to Use? By Madeline Feehan If you're scared of AI, you're not alone! It seems like it's growing stronger and appearing everywhere, and it can be hard to know if we should keep resisting it or give in. Are we the dinosaurs who are out of date if we don't use it, or if we do, are we losing our authenticity? My rule when it comes to AI is to be less afraid of it, but don't necessarily rely on it. When considering whether or not to use it for your library's social media, consult with your team to see what's best. If anything, I'd recommend AI for analytics and behind-the-scenes monitoring rather than for creating posts. The creativity aspect should always be human.  In a helpful CNET guide, social media experts outline the general rule of thumb of when content creators should and shouldn't use AI. Something to remember is that AI can draft, but humans must polish . If you use AI to write someth...

  Image Source A lot of patrons don't realize it, but libraries count everything. Program attendance, in-person visits, book circulation, books returned in the book drop, and questions asked are just some of the things libraries often count. But why? Library statistics generally demonstrate to communities, boards of trustees, and funding agencies which resources are used and how often, giving them a better idea of the impact libraries have. Most public libraries receive much of their funding through local taxes, and their annual budgets are voted on by those taxpayers. In order to justify the proposed budget, libraries often make it a point to publicly post annual reports, which are filled with statistics of all kinds. W hile a  $3,780,680 annual budget funded via taxation may seem like a lot, patrons are more likely to approve of this budget when they see that this is just 34 cents per day per person and that there are 190,844 total check-outs and 24,468 people attending pr...

  Algorithms! The mysterious gatekeepers of the internet, always watching us, deciding what we see, what we buy, and what we accidentally spend twenty minutes scrolling through when we were supposed to be doing something else. Time has a comprehensive guide on how exactly it works. I’ve been thinking a lot about how algorithms compare to what librarians do every day. We both curate, in a way. But where librarians aim to broaden horizons, algorithms tend to narrow them. They feed you more of what you already like because they want to keep you addicted, while librarians (hopefully) hand you something new, or at least don't try to deter you from exploring something new.  Still, there are some similarities. In the same way algorithms use data to predict what users want, libraries can use analytics to learn what our patrons respond to online. For example, if a post featuring staff book picks gets triple the engagement of an event flyer, that suggests people might want connection, n...

                                                  (source from ComicPlus App ) As a librarian, I am always wondering about ways to connect patrons to accessible and inclusive services within our libraries.  And as a librarian within Adult Services, I don't have access to ongoing interaction or community for teens and children. Still, I have seen, from my job's recent purchase of the digital comics and graphic novel platform (developed by LibraryPass), ComicsPlus .  What is impressive is how much range and content this platform offers: it has age-appropriate collections for kids, teens, and adults, works on any device, and is FREE with a library card. Its filters (like age-level, genre, and format) make it user-friendly and get patrons familiar with the information-seeking behavior of databases. What I love the most is that it offers offline access! To me...

  Does your library engage a third-party analytic tool to track and inform your social media posts? SocialBee is just one of many available apps that assist an organization with planning, scheduling, and tracking of their social media content. However, the non-profit monthly price of $119 may be out of budget for most public libraries. Money, schmoney, I know. Finances are tight all around, but the return on investment for purchasing a license may outweigh the costs. Think about it: do staff in your library post haphazardly without any marketing objective? We all know that social media metrics should be tied to an organization’s objectives, which result in key performance indicators. SMART objectives should be defined at your library. These include objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based (Sun, 2018, 8:02). Is your staff curious to learn about reach, clickthroughs, or site stickiness? Without analysis and metrics, how does your library know whi...

  Ah, programming. They’re one of the aspects of librarianship I enjoy most (okay, I’m not technically a librarian yet, but let me have this moment). It’s always rewarding to come away from a program feeling like you’ve given its attendees something to enjoy, whether it be a new craft project or an enlivening book discussion. The latter can be particularly rewarding–if, of course, you can get attendees. It’s one thing to get people interested in reading a book, and another one entirely to get them to actually show up at your book program–something I’ve learned over these past few months in trying to promote my own. It can be quite disheartening to select a book, read it, meticulously craft discussion questions, and prepare snacks and drinks…only for no one to show up. Of course, some of this can’t be helped. People are busy, and simply don’t have an hour or two to spare. Still, I can’t help but daydream about a tweak to our social media posts–a glorious sample of hypothetical analy...

A TikTok example of the viral "nothingbeatsajet2holiday" meme format   an example of how the viral meme is becoming merch   Blog Post #7: Embrace the Chaos! By Madeline Feehan What do you do when your organization goes viral for the wrong reasons? Do you: A) Panic B) Rebrand C) Sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened D) Face it head-on and embrace the chaos I'd recommend option D because it's a great way to take accountability while also being transparent. If you can recognize your flaws and play off them, it's a much more mature and respectable reaction than simply tuning them out and making yourselves look better. This same subject came up in Kristen's blog post about the Coldplay concert incident . She asked us if we thought it would be better if the company the CEO worked at would be better off partnering with Coldplay and giving in to the memes or trying to steer attention away.  This same topic comes up when I think of Jet2 Holidays. Althoug...

                                                                                                                                             (image source from Reddit ) In this week's readings, we came across, via many methods and modalities, a form of understanding that brings us ever closer to a better picture of what and how a library works . When I tried to get a better sense of how policy and governance interact, how they are embedded within each other yet significantly separate structures, nothing reminded me more of such a metaphor as the Long Island Railroad....