Since there's no point in Twittering if no one acts on your tweets and there's no point in having a Facebook page with a million "likes" if library use doesn't increase, you'll welcome the eight best practices presented here because they will help your library both actually do social media in a way that matters and do it well. The successful strategies presented here range from the Vancouver Public Library's innovative use of Twitter to the United Nations Library's adoption of a social media policy to the Farmington, Connecticut Public Library's fantastic work using social media to reach teens who weren't using the library. Other libraries highlight their ventures into media including blogs, Pinterest, and social catalogs.

As we come to appreciate the opportunities that social media opens up, this practical guide provides a scalable, step-by-step plan for creating and maintaining a successful library social media strategic plan. You'll find detailed tips and advice on strategizing for social media services in a way that guides employee decision-making, maximizes efficiency, creates positive patron outcomes, protects against legal repercussions, and builds opportunities for flexibility, change, and new social media platform testing. Author Sarah Steiner guides you through the key steps to build your strategic plan, including how to segment your audience, select a target audience, use focus groups and poll patrons, conduct a SWOT analysis to provide internal strength and support to your plan, and create a mission and vision plan for using social media.

As social technologies continue to evolve, it is apparent that librarians and their clientele would benefit through participation in the digital social world. While there are benefits to implementing these technologies, many libraries also face challenges in the integration and usage of social media. Social Media Strategies for Dynamic Library Service Development discusses the integration of digital social networking into library practices. Highlighting the advantages and challenges faced by libraries in the application of social media, this publication is a critical reference source for professionals and researchers working within the fields of library and information science, as well as practitioners and executives interested in the utilization of social technologies in relation to knowledge management and organizational development.

The subject of the use of social media has renewed interest because of the impact that it had on the last U.S. presidential election and the impact that social media networks will have on subsequent elections. As guides in the information world, it is thus important that librarians be well versed in social media. This has called attention to the relevance and urgency of incorporating social media use into the academic library, both as a marketing tool and as an instruction tool. Social Media for Communication and Instruction in Academic Libraries is an essential reference source that offers guidance in using social media in academic libraries and in instruction with a special emphasis on assessment and evidence-based practice. Featuring research on topics such as digital libraries, marketing, and web analytics, this book is ideally designed for librarians, administrators, educators, managers, information technology specialists, professionals, researchers, and students.

Using Social Media to Build Library Communities: A LITA Guide is a community-building action manual for practitioners across the profession. By bringing together an array of perspectives to explore community building through social media, this book serves as the go-to resource for professionals who want to take social media beyond marketing and promotion to build an inclusive and engaged community of library users. Each chapter contains clear explanations of important topics for building communities through social media, and readers will come away with cohesive approaches for their own libraries. Using Social Media to Build Library Communities demonstrates that an energetic and committed community exists to help and guide fellow community builders.

The introduction of social media has given many communities the opportunity to connect and communicate with each other at a higher level than ever before. Many organizations, from businesses to governments, have taken advantage of this important tool to conduct research and enhance efficiency. Libraries and educational institutions have also made use of social media to enhance educational marketing, engage with learning communities, adapt educational tools, and more. The Research Anthology on Applying Social Networking Strategies to Classrooms and Libraries describes the applications, tools, and opportunities provided by the intersection of education and social media. It also considers the ways in which social media encourages learner engagement and community participation. Covering topics such as data collection, online professional learning networks, and reinforcement learning, this major reference work is a dynamic resource for pre-service teachers, teacher educators, faculty and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, librarians, archivists, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

The storage of information lies within the basic components called binary devices, and at present, storage media falls into two categories—random and serial (or sequential) access—which require different amounts of time to access a given piece of data. The typical serial-access medium is magnetic tape, which has a storage density that has increased considerably over the years. Vast quantities of source data are collected, digitized, and compressed automatically by means of unique instruments in fields such as astronomy, environmental monitoring, scientific experimentation and modelling, and national security. Information capture that is generated by an individual, in the form of packages of symbols called documents, is accomplished by manual and, increasingly, automatic techniques. Data that is entered into instruments manually, such as keyboard strikes, is a process that is comparatively slow and error-prone and often requires the use of computer programs with supporting editing software for formatting, grammar, spelling, and more. With the evolution of technology and its impact on human society, the social sciences have begun to describe this new version of society as a post-industrial or the information/knowledge society. Such terms attempt to capture the unprecedented development and use of information and communication technologies and the fact that information generation, processing, and transmission have become the fundamental sources of productivity and power. An exploration into the impacts of the modern knowledge society on the ways in which academic researchers utilize, distribute, and record data from their fields of study is necessary for further comprehension, protection, and maintenance of this ever-expanding body of information. Information Literacy Skills and the Role of Social Media in Disseminating Scholarly Information in the 21st Century analyzes the various factors of information literacy skill for disseminating scholarly information in the 21st century and increases the awareness level of social media use by researchers for sharing information. Covering topics such as information literate pedagogy, information literacy instruction, and ICT and learning in the knowledge society, this book is ideal for librarians, teachers, research scholars, students of library and information science, knowledge mangers, and information scientists.