Museums and Mobile – a Huge Opportunity for Digital Visitor Service

Mobile devices represent a significant opportunity for visitor engagement – before, after and during visits. In a major survey done in 2012-2013, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London discovered that almost two thirds of their visitors own a smartphone and bring it with them to the museum, and the majority of survey respondents said they use their phones to “enhance their cultural visits.”

Survey results showed that the use of mobile devices for accessing the V&A website doubled from January 2012 to January 2013, with the “Visit Us” and “What’s On” pages showing the most activity. While it might be easy to think of smartphones as primarily onsite resources, evidence shows that they’re used to support the potential visitors' decision-making process.

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Use of Social Media by the Library: Current Practices and Future Opportunities

http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/71966 DocuTicker Editors highlight a favorite "Editor's Pick":

In the early days, social media were not commonly envisaged by librarians as having much practical relevance. But with the continuing development of more platforms and channels, the use by libraries of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc is becoming not only more common, but also for a greater range of purposes.

While at present chiefly focussed on promotion and outreach, social media is also being used to promote dialogue with users and customers. Hosting of library resources via social media is a further aspect of current developments, although this raises copyright issues.

Despite the increasing adoption of social media its actual impact is currently uncertain, although potential metrics are being developed. It is one aspect of a future which this report envisages, in which social media are increasingly integrated into the work of libraries.
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From our survey, over 70% of libraries are using social media tools, and 60% have had a social media account for three years or longer. 30% of librarians are posting at least daily. Facebook and Twitter remain the most popular channels currently, but the range of channels being used is expanding rapidly; there is a particular acceleration of interest in visual channels such as YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat...


Read the White Paper.

Social Media library conference presentations

The Texas Library Association had its Annual Conference last month and the Special Libraries Division hosted a couple of presentations you might be interested in.

Karen Landolt, who is the Director for the University of Texas' HireTexas Interview Center, presented Social Media for Career Advancement.

Laura Young of Austin Ventures did a new version of 50 Apps in 50 Minutes.

Pinterest for Libraries

In the May 2012 issue of SEARCHER magazine, there is an article by Irene E. McDermott about Pinterest, which, thanks to favorable coverage in TIME went from "120,000 users in January 2011...to more than 11 users in January 2012..." According to advertising tools, "over 97% of Pinterest's Facebook fans are women."

Here is Kelly Lester's links to "advice to make Pinterest pay off for a small web-based business."

The New York Public Library (http://pinterest.com/nypl/) "showcase[s] its current events and pictures of the day, but also...merchandise it sells in its [gift] shop." Also check out the pages for the Muncie (IN) Public Library and the Westerville (OH) Library.

In a sidebar article, "Pinterest and Copyright: We May Have a Problem" notes that there is a metatag () that "webmasters can insert into their headers to keep Pinterest from copying and pinning their content."

Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

As social media use has become pervasive in the lives of American teens, a new study finds that 69% of the teenagers who use social networking sites say their peers are mostly kind to one another on such sites. Still, 88% of these teens say they have witnessed people being mean and cruel to another person on the sites, and 15% report that they have been the target of mean or cruel behavior on social network sites.

Adult social network users are less likely to say they witness or experience this type of behavior, but they still report that it is prevalent: 69% of adults who use social networking sites say they have seen people be mean and cruel to others on those sites.

More HERE.

The Social Side of the Internet

The internet is now deeply embedded in group and organizational life in America. A new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has found that 75% of all American adults are active in some kind of voluntary group or organization and internet users are more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet users participate in groups, compared with 56% of non-internet users. And social media users are even more likely to be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of Twitter users are group participants.

Designing Social Media Policy for Government

Government agencies in the United States and around the world are increasingly looking to leverage social media to improve the quality of government services and enable greater citizen engagement. One central challenge that has emerged is the blurring line between the three types of social media use by government employees, namely agency use, professional use, and personal use. In this brief, the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany draws on its research on social media to clarify these different use types and why they matter for designing social media policy.