A few years ago I was able to attend the ISTE National Conference in Philadelphia. One thing I found impressive was that they included Twitter Handles on the name badges. National Conferences are largely valuable for the networking opportunities they provide. What a great way for educators to continue that networking and expand their current professional learning community!
It got me thinking about the librarians in our region, and how many of them have a Facebook page or Twitter handle for their school libraries. Educators are sometimes skeptical when it comes to social media, and I get it. You don’t really want your students to see what you get up to on the weekends. However, having a social media account is a really great idea for your school library, and yes, that even means elementary schools.
What better way to showcase the great programming happening in your library? Need more students to join library club? Tweet about it! If you have older students, you can use this as a platform for teaching them responsible ways to use social media. By having students help you create your library “brand”, they will understand how social media can affect their own digital identities.
In her Scholastic Edublog article, Tamiko Brown (2017 School Librarian of the Year by SLJ and Scholastic) lays out 5 Reasons School Librarians Should Use Social Media.
Laura Fleming for Edutopia writes about The Power of a School Library Hashtag.
This website from the New Zealand National Library, Social media and the school library, explains how social media can help you find new ways to support reading, inquiry and digital literacy. It will also show your school community that you welcome student involvement. This last link is a great resource because it includes guidelines and strategies for social media use, as well as a guide to different platforms, and examples of school libraries that use social media.
See you @M1Bsls
