Social Media And Special

CollectionsMixing the Old and the New Promoting Use and Access in Special Collections

About MeGraduate of Queen’s University• BAH in History and Classics

’14• Former QUL student assistant

at Lederman Law and the Queen’s Learning Commons

University of Toronto iSchool Current Student (‘16)• Library & Information Science • Archives & Records

Management

Working at: • University College Library• Gerstein Science Info Centre• John M. Kelly Library Rare

Books

What I Love: • Rare Books & Special

Collections• Social Media &

Communications• Completely unrelatedly,

horses

The Stereotypical

Special Collections Librarian

The Modern Special Collections

Librarian

The Traditional Special Collection

• Safeguarded content • Cut off from public

use unless in monitored reading room

• “Restricted” access • Risks: theft,

damage, misuse, loss

Today’s Sharing Society

• Today, we share everything

• How has this influenced libraries? • Most libraries have social

media accounts ranging from Twitter to Flickr.

• These accounts are so often underutilized!

• Libraries need, but often lack, dedicated staff for Web and Social Media.

Social Media to Promote Special Collections

• Special Collections can use Social Media to: • Attract users • Promote collections,

exhibits, events, etc.

• Expand access• Connect with other

institutions

Library Wide Platforms• Libraries are starting to use Facebook and

Twitter• But how can social media be harnessed for

the Special Collection? Answer: PROMOTION! Special Collections should use Facebook and Twitter as bait, to entice viewers to view larger parts of the collection on image platforms like …

The Advent of Flickr and Instagram

• Image based sharing

• Flickr provides to opportunity to create sharable online exhibits, for free!

• Instagram allows libraries to connect, share and learn from with others in their community using hashtags.

Even the Smithsonian Does It• In addition to launching

its own accounts, they also launched the Flickr Commons in 2012.

• The Flickr Commons is a place for Institutions from around the world to share content.

• The Smithsonian was really the Flickr library pioneer, using it not only to share but also as a way to store and display digitized materials.

No Meme here guys, it’s the Smithsonian. Have some human decency.

#Specialcollections on Instagram

• Connect with other special collections around the world

• Follow hashtags • #weekofROYGBIV• #bookfacefriday

• Promote collections to the public

• Have fun!

More than Just Posting Pictures

• You need metadata, cataloging information and access points!

• Save the image with a controlled name, use jpeg.

• In the image description: • Link to the catalog

record or your homepage• Use hashtags for key

words• Provide contact info for

your institution• Link to other material

My Project: Kelly Library Flickr

• The Kelly Library is a great example of a library using Flickr for promotion

• Each uploaded image has appropriate metadata included in the description

• All the images are organized into albums

My Project: Kelly Library Flickr• Next steps for the Kelly: connect with more

users and similar collections • See what is trending

• Start using other platforms, and created a cross-platform social media strategy• Expand the user base while at the same time

digitizing collections!

Thanks for your

attention!

I hope you take some of these ideas

home to your own libraries

and collections.(All Memes courtesy of MemeGenerator.com)