In keeping with tradition here are my top 10 social media and libraries predictions for 2012.

1. We will see a sharp increase in the number of libraries that have mobile friendly websites or library related applications for mobile phones.

2. More libraries will use youtube videos and other videos as a marketing channel and as an education medium.

3. We will see an increase in libraries using social media to educate rather than just to market resources and services.

4. Google Plus will increase in popularity and more libraries will develop pages on the site although Google Plus will still not be as popular as facebook.

5. More libraries will seek ways to create mobile apps for various uses and not just for the library website.

6. As more database vendors create mobile apps, libraries will be able to offer more services to patrons via mobile.

7. Book review sites such as Goodreads and Library Thing will be used by more libraries as tools for offering book reviews and for locating new books to read.

8. Libraries will adapt more open source programs for all aspects of running the library.

9. More libraries will find ways to use online gaming as a marketing and educational tool.

10. More libraries will use Google apps for a variety of functions including email.

What am I missing?

Most college libraries have a facebook page and many have twitter accounts and youtube channels but did you know that there are 40 ways that many college libraries are leveraging social media? I know I didn’t. Until I found this article. I read through it and I was amazed.

Not only are many of these ideas being used to market the college library but they also involve class assignments, library literacy, students interacting with the circulation and reference desks and much more.

What other ways would you add to this list?

I have noticed throughout the past 4 years writing this blog as well as my own experience with social media at my academic library and from the experiences of other libraries, that most libraries are not really using social media in the best ways possible and that we are attempting to use social media in ways that are effective for businesses but not so much for libraries. For example, most facebook fan pages for libraries do not get great results. I’m not sure all the reasons why but I am guessing that most of our patrons are not on facebook to stay in touch with the library. The same can really be said of twitter as well. I find that more librarians use it to stay in touch and to network with each other than our patrons use it to learn about the library. So how then can libraries use social media to really reach their patrons?

Here are some ideas:

Use your facebook fan page and twitter account to promote a contest. This will more than likely get better results than your everyday posts and updates. Require your patrons to answer a question or do something on the page.

Encourage your patrons to install and use database and library related mobile applications. The University of North Carolina has a great library mobile website.

Use video. Video is one of the most effective marketing tools for businesses and it can work great for libraries too.

Consider having a live event and then broadcasting the event live over ustream or another live casting site and sharing it on your facebook page, blog or twitter account.

What other ideas do you have to make social media really work for libraries?

Social media is becoming more and more a must for libraries and many libraries are finding that when used properly it can be a great tool to save money and promote library services and collections.

That said, here is my list of social media and library trends for the new year 2011.

1. Mobile applications- this is a big one. Libraries will start using a variety of these this year including those designed for library websites as well as by library database vendors and other library related mobile applications.

2. QR Codes- These are starting to show up and become popular in the business and marketing worlds and they will start to be used in libraries this year.

3. Google Applications- whether it’s collaborating with google docs, using google voice for text messaging or any of the other google applications. Google has a lot to offer libraries and more libraries will start using these.

4. Twitter- While more libraries may be using facebook, in many ways, twitter can offer more to libraries especially when it comes to reference and instant answers to questions.

5. Virtual reference- While this is already offered at many libraries, new trends and offerings in the social media world make offering this service more practical than before. Whether it’s installing an instant chat application on a facebook fan page, using a live video site such as ustream.tv or one of the many other free applications available through social media, virtual reference is more doable and approachable than it has been in many years.

6. Increased collaboration between librarians at more than one institution as well as between faculty and librarians will occur thanks to social media tools that make this possible. Examples include twitter, twiddla, and many other white board and online sharing applications.

7. Teaching social media classes- I started doing these at my library this year and I believe many more libraries will follow suit.

8. Using social media as a teaching tool and not just as a tool for library promotion. New applications by library vendors such as lib guides and gale and many others make this possible and we will only continue to see even more of these in 2011.

What other trends in libraries and social media did I miss?

Do you need a guide for the social media marketing that you are doing or should be doing for your library? Library journal is here to rescue you. There is a new book that has been published called, Social Media Marketing GPS. It is being featured on the library journal website. I haven’t read it yet but it sure looks like a good one for all of us out there using social media to promote the library.

Do you question or wonder what the role of social media is in learning? Do you really wonder if it is an effective way to teach students, or library patrons about information literacy, how to use the library and other things important for librarians and for life-long information skills?

The Social Learning Handbook is here to help. This website offers a wealth of information and testimonials as well as experiences from other librarians and educators on how to use and how they have used social media in learning.

In addition here are a few ideas on how to make social media useful for learning:

1. Find ways to use social media sites such as facebook to teach your students or other patrons how to search library databases, find books in your library catalog, understand what information literacy is and other things important for them to know.

2. Incorporate social media aspects into your everyday library activities and information literacy presentations.

3. Consider offering mini-courses on various aspects of social media and how to use it for learning or marketing purposes.

4. Invite your patrons to ask you questions about social media.

5. Stay up to date with learning about social media yourself.

What other ideas do you have for how social media plays a role in learning and how it will play a role in the future?

1. In library literacy sessions in classes. You could use one for each group of 4-5 students and ask students to complete a project on it. This would be particularly useful when presenting in a non-computer lab classroom.

2. You could go into the student commons or anywhere else where students or your library patrons hang out and ask if you can give them a brief demonstration on something such as how to locate ebooks, how to find articles in a certain database or how to search the library catalog.

3. You could have a limited number available for in library use only for a limited time period.

4. You could use them to teach a library mini-course in a group study room or other library room that does not have computers.

5. You could have one of the members of your library staff stand in a high traffic area away from your reference desk carrying an ipad and offer to help patrons as they wonder through the stacks.

6. You could load some ebooks on them and check them out since unlike the kindle this is probably allowed. Although you would need to have the patron sign their life away, in order to be able to use one.

7. You could consider having your staff use ipads instead of your regular computers. This may or may not work but if you could make it work, you may be able to say a lot of money.

8. Find some library related websites, ebooks or other content and upload them onto a few ipads and leave these out on your library displays for patrons to use inside the library.

9. Get rid of all or some of your library computers and replace them with ipads for your patrons to use instead.

10. Give away an ipad as a prize for a library contest. Make your patrons complete some kind of a survey to be entered to win.

A-active, in order for your library patrons to view you as being serious about your social networking and for it to work for you and your library, you need to use it on a regular basis.

B- Blog, does your library have a blog. This is a great way for you to offer value and content for your library and it has become the standard for libraries to have one.

C-Content- just like businesses have to offer valuable content in order to market their businesses, your library needs to offer valuable content that your patrons will read and appreciate.

Direction- What are you planning to accomplish for your library with social networking?

Ebooks- You can share these on social networking to increase their exposure.

F-Facebook, having a presence on facebook with a fan page or a group is a must. Facebook is so popular now that it is expected.

G-Good Reads, Do your patrons need some ideas of what to read? Help them out with Good Reads.

H-Help- relying on only one or two people to build your library’s social networking presence will not work. It needs to be a whole team effort on behalf of your entire library staff.

I-Interesting- Are your library’s social networking profiles and content interesting? They had better be if you want them to work for you.

J-Joomla- an open source web design program that can make editing your library website and adding in social networking features much easier.

K-Koha the best open source program for your library catalog, you can also integrate social networking into this tool.

L-Library Thing- use this great site to share your library collections with others.

M- Mobile, more and more your library’s social networking needs to be able to be accessed via mobile devices. There are also more options than ever for making this a reality.

N-Ning this free social networking site allows you to create a social networking specifically for your library.

O-Open Source- use these programs and tools to enhance your social networking experience and to help your library save money.

P-Podcasting- this is a great way to share interviews and valuable audio tips with your library’s audience.

R-Reference- you may think that offering reference services via social networking is impossible but the reality is that so many of your patrons use facebook, twitter and youtube that you can offer the answers to frequently asked questions as a form of reference services on these sites.

S-Slideshare, this heavy traffic and awesome social networking site lets you share power point presentations. Use this site to embed your presentations and promote them on other sites as well.

T-Text messaging- Is your library using it yet?

U-Ustream- use this program to broadcast live to your library patrons.

V-Video whether on youtube or elsewhere, use video to enhance and engage with your users via social networking.

W-Widgets- many database vendors provide these and you can use them in many ways to promote your library resources.

Y- Youth- using social networking allows you to connect on a deeper level with young people.

Z-zeal, is your library staff exciting about the possibilities that social networking can offer your library? If not, you will struggle to make it work for you.

In my last post I talked about the top 10 social networking in libraries trends for 2009, so now let me share what I believe are the top 10 trends for 2010.

1. An increase in the use of mobile applications for library services. This includes things such as text messaging but also the development of library web pages on .mobi domains for use on mobile devices and maybe even libraries creating iphone applications for their libraries.

2. Even more ebook readers and the popularity of the ones that already exist. New and existing ebook publishers and device manufacturers will find ways for patrons to download and read a higher number of ebooks from popular collections such as ebrary and netlibrary on ebook readers. This is still a challenge and it will be easier by the end of 2010.

3. The usage of more niche social networking sites for the public at large and this will spill over into libraries.

4. An increase in the amount and usage of Google Applications such as Google Wave and other similar applications.

5. The Google Books controversy will more or less be resolved and patrons will begin to use it more.

6. Library websites will become more socialized and customized. Patrons will be able to interact more directly with the library’s website.

7. College libraries will use more open source software and more social networking sites to educate their patrons and for library literacy in order to save money.

8. More libraries will use podcasting and itunes U to communicate with patrons and to offer value.

9. More libraries will offer social networking classes to their patrons.

10. Social networking in libraries will be viewed more as a must and as a way to save money than as a fun thing to play with or to use to market the library.

How was 2009 as a year for social networking tools for libraries? Well here are what I consider to be the top 10 tools, trends or sites that libraries began using successfully during 2009? Stay tuned in a few days for my list of predictions for 2010.

1. Facebook fan pages. This was the year that in my opinion many libraries started not only using them but making them work as a marketing tool for their library.

2. Twitter- before 2009, twitter was popular enough for many people but this year it really started being used by libraries and other library related vendors.

3. Library related widgets such as libguides widgets and gale widgets as well as those from other vendors. Although they existed before 2009, many vendors of library databases and other programs really began coming out with the social networking widgets for searching and using their products during this year.

4. Text a librarian and other texting services. Although some libraries may have used texting to hand held devices before 2009, it really increased in popularity this year.

5. Ebook readers- whether it is the kindle, the nook, or the sony reader, many more libraries and librarians as well as people either bought their first reader during 2009 or began really considering it.

6. Flickr- this site became even more popular in 2009 than it was in 2008. In 2008 the Library of Congress put their collection on flickr and many more libraries followed suite this year.

7. Online reference and citation software programs such as refworks and bibme. This increased in popularity and there are even more of them being made available for free than in the past.

8. Online book reading and sharing communities such as good reads, and shelfari.

9. Open source web design programs for creating a website such as Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. Although reasonably popular before because of budgeting concerns, even more libraries are now using them to create their websites.

10. Social Networking classes- although not a completely new idea, it seems that the increase in these being offered at libraries was significant this year and why not? Social networking is popular and it is a great way to market the library and get patrons in the door.

So what did I miss that you thing was an important tool, resource or trend for social networking in libraries this year?