Exercise 10 - Local Library Evaluation of 2.0 Technologies

My local library is Kuring-gai.  I looked on their Home Page and found large icons to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn at the base of the page.  However, when I followed these, each belonged not solely to the library but to Kuring-gai Council in general. 

When I went to the My Library page, and scrolled to the very bottom there was a link to a Kuring-gai Library Facebook page.  However only 453 people (out of a total population of 120,978 in the LGA, according to the ABS ) have liked it!  Perusing the Facebook site shows me that there are very few reviews, comments or likes and that the local community is not engaging with the Library’s Facebook page, despite the Librarians colourful and interesting posts. 

There are really no discernible Library 2.0 technologies employed under the given headings:

·     Local Studies;

·     Children’s;

·     Teenage/Youth;

·     Adult Fiction; or

·     Information/Reference.

The library catalogue was updated in July 2011 to contain interactive links via LibraryThing and Google Books for catalogue items but to find either you need to locate the individual item on the catalogue then select it.  Once selected either Google Books or LibraryThing (or both) may come up as a link in the ‘More Information’ category.  This is not available for every title in the catalogue, and appears to be pot luck when you select individual items.  See the screen shot of a catalogue item below indicating the availability of LibraryThing and Google Books for the classic children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I think the image the Library/Council chooses to put on the My Library navigation page tells the story as to why the poor uptake of Library 2.0.  Note the age demographic illustrated in the extracted image below:

The ABS web page consulted in Exercise 5 also revealed that within the Sydney SD, the Ku-ring-gai Statistical Local Area has the highest median age at 40.8 years.  Ku-ring-gai also had the highest median age for males (39.5 years) and second highest for females (41.7 years).  I decided to investigate this further and looked at the more detailed ABS National Regional Profile: Kuring-gai.  The following table extracts data from this site to summaries the population by age. 

  

Age Group	% of Kuring-gai population per year
	2009	2010	2011
0-14	19.7	19.8	20.0
15-24	14.2	13.9	14.4
25-34	8.3	8.3	7.9
35-44	13.0	13.1	13.1
45-54	15.8	15.8	15.8
55-64	12.2	12.1	12.0
65-74	8.0	8.2	8.3
75-84	5.9	5.9	5.8
> 85	2.9	3.0	3.1

The table illustrates that Kuring-gai has a low proportion of the population as young professionals (25-34 years).  Living here, I can attest that once children gain an independent income they often leave to live in the busier suburbs closer to the city, to work and nightlife (Three early 20's newly minted professionals have left our small cul-de-sac in the last few months for the bright city lights!).  They may return later in life when they are seeking space to raise a family – hence the higher proportion of 0-14 year olds.

The elderly nature of much of the population, together with the very low proportion of younger working age people (ie those more likely to engage with Library 2.0 technologies), and the conservative nature of the area, means that uptake of Library 2.0 technologies is likely to be more limited.  It is also a reflection of Council, that in seeking to serve an area with a population concentrated at both end of the age spectrum (ie young and old but not middle) they have not embraced those technologies that are most likely to appeal to those in that middle spectrum.  The references I looked at in Exercise 5 and the Sensis Report data all point to younger people moving away from Facebook to the more visual Web 2.0 mediums such as Instagram, Snapchat and the like.  Perhaps these would be more appropriate Library 2.0 technologies in my local area...

Exercise 5 - Social Networking & the Library

Despite my continued reluctance to use social media on a personal basis, I think it’s a great institution for private companies and public services, such as libraries, to use.

It is many years since private companies became alert to the unparalleled marketing opportunities and consumer access offered by Facebook.  This was then expanded by the growth of other social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter.  Most individuals today use some form of social media, with many opting to create profiles on more than one platform.  It has also become common place for people to seek information about products and services online, where word of mouth, and popular reviews have reached epic proportions – the popularity of ranking sites such as TripAdvisor attest to the importance of word of mouth reviews through the online communities.  

On 1 June 2016, Sensis released their annual social media report, “Sensis Social Media Report 2016- How Australian people and businesses are using social media”.  This report surveyed 800 Australian consumers and 1,100 Australian businesses to show how social media is being used.  For the purposes of the report, the term social media is defined as:

• Social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and
• Online blogs and online rating and review mechanisms.

The Executive Summary of the report notes that as the growth of social media continues the “It therefore appears to be more a question of how, rather than if, businesses and marketers should use social media to connect and engage with consumers meaningfully and effectively.”  Furthermore the Foreword notes that “Social media is one of the only digital avenues where businesses can have a two-way communication with customers, giving them the opportunity to receive feedback, monitor sentiment and build a relatable brand personality. They can do all of this with minimal marketing spend, making social media one of the easiest and most cost effective channels to get in front of customers.”

This two way access doubly applies to libraries allowing their patrons to build an online extension of the local community.  It also keeps libraries fully engaged in their communities for very little marketing cost, an expenditure many can ill afford.

The Sensis Report also indicates that 87% of Australians access the internet on a daily basis, with up to following proportions accessing social media:

All of this means that libraries need to embrace Library 2.0 and reach out to their patrons, encouraging access by social media.  It seems that a social media profile will not only embed the library firmly in its community’s consciousness, but will also promote its use and its perceived accessibility to their consumer.  Both of which are vitally important in the current age of government cost cutting.

The question then becomes which sites should a Library use?  It appears that research around the world is showing similar trends - the choice of social media platform is age dependent with younger people choosing the more visual platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, foregoing Facebook which is perceived to belong to the older generations. 

To test how Australian libraries were going in this regard, I visited the Australian Bureau of Statistics website to ascertain which of the local governments areas (LGAs) in NSW and Victoria had the lowest median ages.  I then looked at the library website for each LGA to see what social media platforms were used.  The following table illustrates my findings:

In general I found that libraries in these areas were doing well by providing their communities with a number of tools for engagement, with each library supporting at least 2 social media platforms.

There is a potential downside to all this engagement though: firstly the social media sites need to be well managed with entertaining and engaging content otherwise they will be overlooked and forgotten, and secondly, as many organisations have discovered there can be a downside when social media becomes negative. 

In 2013 Nacy Dowd wrote an interesting article, published in The Library Journal entitled Social Media: Libraries are Posting but is Anyone Listening?  This article makes the point that, like all other ventures undertaken by a Library, the use of social media needs to be planned, monitored and reviewed to ensure the initiatives are successful in achieving each libraries stated goals.  The final paragraph of the paper sums up the situation perfectly…

Social media is not going away. As new platforms emerge, libraries will need to choose the channels that work for their communities. But whatever platforms they choose, they must have some kind of plan that outlines their goals and embrace philosophies that support interactivity with their communities. I think Bizzle summed it up best, “Successful libraries will determine what platforms most effectively reach their target audience and aggressively build sustainable presences there.”