LibraryLinkNJ E-Update
LibraryLinkNJ, The New Jersey Library Cooperative - librarylinknj.org
It’s time again for LibraryLinkNJ’s new, twice-monthly newsletter, Social Media Snapshots! In each issue, we pull together the best content from our social media channels and deliver them right to your inbox. We encourage you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest, but if you don’t, you can rely on Social Media Snapshots to keep you up to date on developments in technology and libraryland -- here in NJ & around the country -- as well as fun things like photos you can share with your staff and patrons.

Want to know more about how you can use social media to connect with your community?
Contact Sophie Brookover.

TEDxPhiladelphia

Attending the 2014 TEDxPhiladelphia conference was definitely a highlight of the year so far. The theme was The New Workshop of the World, a revival of a 19th and 20th century nickname for Philadelphia, and so many of the speakers’ talks touched on issues that pertain to librarianship, including community engagement, participatory learning, and maker culture. Look for Sophie’s notes on our Tumblr in the next week (we’ll link to them here, too). (Via Twitter, See the image on the left)

MS Word can be really tricky to use. These invaluable tips & tricks on understanding and managing Word’s three levels (Sections, Paragraphs & Characters) will have you, your patrons and students moving right along, rather than raging against the machine. (Via Twitter)

All libraries are changing, in ways big & small, and we were struck by the mix of practicality and blue-sky thinking evident in Things My Ideal Academic Library Would Do For Students. A few of the possibilities author Ruth Collings suggests are:

  • Allow students to book appointments online with reference librarians
  • Put writing and tutoring help physically in the library
  • Connect with counselling services
  • Host a regularly rotating display of student art
  • Get rid of desktop computers in exchange for laptops that can be moved around, allowing for more flexible seating
  • Facilitate downloading/ “borrowing” of legal copies of expensive software

We’d love to hear ideas you have along these lines, so we created a simple one-question anonymous survey. Tell us what you’d do for students in your ideal academic library! We’ll compile the results on Tumblr and in a future issue of Social Media Snapshots. (Via Tumblr)

The plot of Michael Chabon’s collegiate farce, Wonder Boys, re-imagined as a page-spread in a Richard Scarry book. These literary-children’s book mashups are forever delightful. (Via Tumblr, See the image below)

WonderBoys

So, Facebook has tweaked its sharing algorithm, leading to a precipitous drop in the reach of individual posts. Translation? The links, photos, and status updates you share on your library’s FB Page aren’t reaching nearly as many of your fans as they used to, unless you pay to boost your posts’ presence in your fans’ feeds. In response, popular takeout website Eat24 has published a hilariously pointed breakup letter to Facebook, announcing their intention to cancel their FB Page entirely. We’re not recommending this course of action (yet) since Facebook still dominates social media in terms of popularity overall, but we do recommend that you watch this space. (Ironically, via Facebook)

You may recall our shout-out to McCowan Public Library’s seed library in an earlier issue, and we’ve recently learned of the Catherine Dickson Hofman Library’s Seed Library in Warren County. Now we’re thrilling to the sight of actual library gardens! These spaces green their communities, offer programming, community partnerships, outreach and co-learning opportunities for staff and patrons alike. This is a win-win-win, and we’d love to know if your community is doing this, or even just thinking about it. If so, please drop Sophie a line! (Via Facebook)

Do you enjoy Throwback Thursday as much as we do? People share some of their favorite photos from long ago on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and tag them #TBT or #ThrowbackThursday so others can find them easily. Lately, we’ve seen some libraries getting in on the act, so we’ll be sharing some great TBT posts. A current favorite is KG Schneider’s 1999 shot of a classic Gaylord charge machine. Our most youthful colleagues may not have seen them in action, but many of us will remember (with varying degrees of fondness) the satisfying “Cha-CHUNK” of hearing items being checked out. (Via Pinterest, See the image on the right)

Gaylord charge machine