[Web4lib] Does your library use Twitter or Facebook--or have you stopped using either?

[Walt Crawford]

Note: I'm posting this to two lists--PUBLIB and web4lib. Apologies for
duplication--but I'd also love it if people would repost it to state
public library lists, if such exist! The message has two parts: For
those libraries that currently use Twitter, Facebook or both--and for
those libraries, if any exist, that formerly used either or both and
have stopped.

---------------------------

If your public library/library district currently uses Twitter,
Facebook or both, I’d love to get some feedback to help me prepare a
book on public library use of social networks, to be published by ALA
Editions next. Please send responses to waltcrawford at gmail.com,
ideally by September 14, 2011.
Basic Information

Library/district official name
Service area population
Your name, title and email address
Whether you’re willing to have your comments used as direct quotations
or only as background.
Comments on Twitter or Facebook (or both—indicate which):

Whatever you feel is worth saying about how your library uses the
social network, how much time is spent preparing items and responding
to items (if you do that), whether one person or many post, the
feedback you’ve gotten from your patrons, whether it seems
worthwhile—and whatever else you think is worth mentioning.
Comments on the relationship between the two (if you use both):

Do you use them for different purposes, or are Facebook statuses
basically longer versions of tweets (or maybe the same)? Other
comments on the differences and similarities as your library has used
them?
Thanks!

I can’t guarantee your comments will be used—I’d expect that no more
than 2,000-3,000 words of the book will be comments from these emails.
I will list you in the acknowledgments (unless you ask me not to do
so) and your comments will definitely help as I prepare the subjective
portions of the book.

I’ll look up your library’s home page and go to your Twitter and
Facebook pages, to pick up basic numbers (followers, following,
tweets, likes, visits) and five recent items from each service as
examples of trends and practices—unless you’re in one of the six or
eleven states for which I’m doing full sweeps, in which case I’d do
that anyway.

Thanks!

Walt Crawford
------------------------------
If your public library/library district has used Facebook, Twitter or
both, and has stopped using one or both, I’d love to get some
feedback, to help me prepare a book on public libraries’ use of social
networks, to be published by ALA Editions in 2012. Please send
responses to waltcrawford at gmail.com by September 14, 2011.
Basic Information

Library/district official name
State, province or country
Service area population
Your name, title and email address, if I need more info
Whether you’re willing to be quoted directly.
Comments on Twitter or Facebook (or both—indicate which):

Why you stopped using the social network and any other comments you
wish to make.
Thanks!

I can’t guarantee your comments will be used—in all, I’d guess no more
than 2,000 to 3,000 words in the book will come from direct librarian
feedback. But I will list you in the acknowledgments and your comments
will definitely help as I prepare the subjective portions of the book.



Note: I’m not assuming that there are any “failure stories.” It won’t
surprise me at all if I don’t get any responses to this “negative”
query. On the other hand, while I can see the Facebook and Twitter
accounts in the six or eleven states I’m studying in depth, I have no
way of knowing about former accounts that have closed—unless people
tell me.

Thanks,

Walt Crawford