outreach

Can You Manage Our Library’s Instagram Account?

In my very first ACRLog post, I talked a little about how librarianship is my second career, and that before I went back to school for my MSLS, I worked for six years in communications and public relations. A part of my work at the public relations firm involved running social media accounts. Building on that, when I was a graduate assistant at a campus library during grad school, I also helped run that library’s Instagram account, which was a great way to bridge the gap between two different subjects (health vs. libraries) with a common denominator (social media).

At some point during my interview process for my current position, I mentioned this social media work. With that in mind, after I started at my current library, I wasn’t surprised when my library director asked me if I would be willing to create a social media plan for our specific library’s Instagram account and take over as the primary person to manage the account. I’m sure that I’m not the only librarian who has experienced this type of social media ask – so I wanted to share some social media tips and tricks that I’ve picked up both from my communications/PR days and from my librarian days.

What do I do first?!

Whether or not you have previous professional social media experience, if someone asks you to take over a social media account, don’t panic! Chances are that you have a LinkedIn, so remember that you already have some experience using social media for professional purposes, even if it’s not necessarily a professional account (like for an official organization or business).

Have a conversation with others in your library, both your supervisor and your fellow librarians and library staff, to figure out what the vision is for the social media account. Do you want to be funny? Wholesome? Informational? Make sure everyone understands the vision, even if they won’t be directly involved in managing the account.

I would also strongly recommend creating a social media content calendar (a search for “social media content calendar template” brings up a lot of results to help you get started). Plan ahead for what content you’ll post, and when you’ll post it. This is especially important when you first start running an account, because it will help you feel less overwhelmed. Thinking about content a few weeks or a month in advance gives you time to create things like images, infographics, or videos, and helps others know what’s coming too. It also helps you to think through your other responsibilities and figure out how often you can reasonably post. For especially busy weeks, if you have three days’ worth of content ready to go on Monday, that means you can go ahead and schedule it all to go out on specific days throughout the week. Check in with the folks you work with to see what ideas they have and ask if they’d be interested in helping to create any content (or starring in a fun video!). Even if you’re in charge of the account, you don’t have to do this alone!

How do I know what to post?

Some posts will be self-evident, so don’t worry about having to brainstorm super creative content several times a week. For instance, every time my library’s hours change, we post a fun image on Instagram that shows our new hours. When I was in grad school, every time the library where I worked got a cool new book, I would create a simple image with the cover, name, and author, and share it so students would be aware. For major library celebration days, organizations like ALA create graphics and social media toolkits that are free to download and use – for example, here are the materials they put together for National Library Week last week.

I’ve also used this blog post from a consulting firm that works with libraries and other community-focused organizations as a guide when I’m feeling stuck. Their focus on how to think about marketing through a library lens helps me refocus on what I CAN do as a busy librarian and what would be most impactful on social media, while also not taking up too much of my time when I’m feeling overwhelmed.

What else do I have to do?

As you’ve probably already guessed, there’s more to running a social media account than just creating graphics and posting them with a caption. The current goal for me with my library’s Instagram account is for me to post three times a week (ish). Each time I log into the account to post something, I also take time to answer any direct messages we’ve received, scroll through the account’s feed to like and post comments on other posts, and note any fun posts from other library accounts that might be an inspiration for one of our posts. No one knows exactly how the mysterious algorithm works, but we do know that engaging with other accounts is important for our own account’s numbers.

Pulling monthly statistics is also an important part of running an account – that way, you’ll know what types of posts get the most engagement. Even on professional accounts, the stats won’t be available forever, so I have a standing to-do list item at the beginning of each month to add statistics from the previous month to an Excel spreadsheet. For any posts that involve other people or organizations, I also try to tag those collaborators to give them the acknowledgement and visibility that they deserve. Finally, I also include alternate text for all the images and subtitles for all of the videos that I post on Instagram. Accessibility is important!

What other resources are there to help me?

There’s a whole library hive mind out there to help you in your professional social media journey! In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, a few that I often turn to are:

Library-focused posts, like this one, from firms and organizations that I trust (this particular firm has done webinars in conjunction with ALA committees multiple times).
Librarian-run substacks like Content Prompt (there’s more out there than you might think!).
Discord servers, Facebook groups, and Reddit threads of social media professionals, librarians running social media accounts, and more (again, there’s more of these than you would think!).

Why does it even matter for libraries to have social media accounts?

I’m a big believer that we need to meet people where they are. As an academic librarian at a library that’s serving busy students and faculty, our students are almost all on social media. That’s where they get information, find things to do, talk to their friends, and more. I know we won’t reach every student, but if we can reach even a few to tell them about events, resources, and more – and to encourage them to tell their friends – then in my view, it’s worth it. Students are overwhelmed with demands for their time and attention, and it’s not enough to assume that they’ll come to the library if they need it. We need students to know that librarians are here to help – and social media is one important way to get that message across.

Is it worth it?

As I mentioned above, last week was National Library Week, and the theme was Find Your Joy. I spent a lot of this past week filming my fellow librarians sharing what brings them library joy and where they find library joy, and editing their comments into a video. Did it take me all day on Friday to put this video together? Yes. Was it worth it? Definitely.

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and the Library

At Michigan State University, we observe Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American and Asian Heritage Month on campus) from mid-March to mid-April because by the time May, the official month, rolls around, most students have left campus for the summer. This makes for an event-filled few weeks leading up to finals, but luckily besides a presentation in Hindi class, I don’t have to worry about finals and can focus on programming around APIDA/A Heritage Month events.

I’m the librarian for South and Southeast Asian studies, so technically don’t cover Asian American studies at all. That said, I do participate in activities with the APIDA/A staff organization and over time one thing has led to another and I’ve started doing more Asian American and Pasifika outreach. There’s obviously a lot of crossover between Asian studies and Asian American studies already, and I’ve also found that students really aren’t concerned with the divide between the two. This means that APIDA/A Heritage Month is a good outreach time for me, because there are events readily available for me to attend as a representative of the library and because I can get face-to-face time with people who might not otherwise be coming into the library or contacting me when I might be able to help.

Here’s what I’ve worked on so far this month, which is actually only a fraction of the slate of events and activities happening around campus:

Asian Pacific American Studies Annual Symposium

This is an annual event organized by the academic program on campus where students, faculty, and outside speakers share their research on Asian American and Pacific studies. I’ve tabled at the event for two years now.

At Asian and Asian American studies events where I table, I typically bring some books to give away, since I like to get Asian books back to the community. At any event where I table, I also bring handouts from the library either about what I can do to help library users or about other applicable library services (such as our library accessibility initiatives when I table at disability pride events). I usually make a themed reading list of some sort for the event, so I bring a sign with a link to that. If I have the time, I also like to make minizines with book recommendations around a theme: APALA Literature Award winners, for example, or recent Pasifika-authored books in the collection. Sometimes I also bring other small library giveaways, but usually by this point my table is pretty full.

This event is fun because I get to hear about current research projects and get to meet a lot of students. This year, I was scheduled to table for both days of the symposium and ended up bringing a whole different set of books the second day because I met some students with specific research interests that I could definitely cover.

APIDA/A Heritage Month Book Display

At the MSU library, we regularly have week-long book displays in the lobby featuring books that visitors passing by can pick up and check out. The idea is that they’re based around interesting and timely topics and don’t necessarily include dense academic works. In between topics such as cryptozoology and ancient astronauts, I slip in displays timed for various heritage or pride months, including APIDA/A Heritage Month. As with my tabling, I try to make an accompanying LibGuide that people can reference year-round. I also sometimes break out the minizines if I have any that are particularly relevant.

Asian Pacific American Student Organization’s Speculative Futures Event

This was another standard tabling experience for me, but I was particularly excited about it because the student organization invited me to come—this time it wasn’t a case of me cold emailing organizers and hoping for the best. This event was also fun because it was held at the campus museum, right across the street from the library, so I got to wheel my supplies across the road and didn’t have to worry about lugging all my supplies to and from my car. It’s also always really fun to see what kind of an event the students pull together.

Upcoming Events

I have a few more events on the horizon: a study break organized by the Asian Pacific American Studies Program and another lobby display in May for the national Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. And then it will be time to regroup for the APALA Literature Awards Banquet, but more on that later.

Do you incorporate any campus events into your outreach work or other library programming? Do you have any tips to share?

Engaging in Outreach Efforts & Meaningful Community Building

As a MLIS student at San Jose State University (SJSU), I often read about the importance of promoting library services through outreach efforts. During that time, I ran across the following quote that illustrates this point, and it continues to resonate with me:

Gone are the days when libraries can simply open their doors and expect to be perceived as the number one option for information services. With fierce competition for funding and more people assuming everything offered by a library can be found online, libraries are feeling the pressure to blow their own horn (Hallmark et al., 2007).

Last year, I started as a Lecturer Librarian at CSU Northridge. Since I began in the summer of 2023, I did not immediately have instruction requests or deadlines for collection development. Instead, I directed my attention to outreach opportunities, which continued to be part of my priorities throughout the fall and even now in the spring. I work closely with the Outreach Librarian to deliver outreach programming to keep patrons abreast of upcoming library events, and to promote library collection materials by designing book displays. I have collaborated with faculty, staff, students, and community members to make these events successfully happen. So far, I have remained committed to outreach efforts by participating in the “Ask a Librarian” tabling events, the Resources & Services Fair, the New Student Orientation, CSUN Open House, National Transfer Student Week, and library tours for K-12 students. I am particularly proud of my involvement in creating virtual and in-person book displays for Latinx Heritage Month and Black History Month.

While the outreach opportunities mentioned above have been quite rewarding, I was curious to participate in wider campus efforts centered on outreach and community building. Late last fall, I was selected to be a Library Liaison for the Office of Community Engagement (OCE) at CSU Northridge. This office strives to enhance academic experiences through community-based (service) learning, engaged research and sustained partnerships within the San Fernando Valley, and the greater Los Angeles Area. In my role, I support faculty members as they develop community-engaged projects and/or courses. Faculty members receive support in creating syllabi that outline community-based learning outcomes centered on equity, diversity, and inclusion. I expect that I will also recommend community-engaged readings, and activities for their syllabi.

Since I’m serving in the inaugural cohort, the other Library Liaisons and I have been working on recruitment. During our last departmental meeting, we offered our librarian colleagues a brief overview about the OCE, and we introduced them to grant opportunities designed for faculty members committed to community-engaged courses, projects, research, or creative activities. Additionally, I have been spreading awareness about the OCE to professors and lecturers in the department of Central American & Transborder Studies. After I teach my information literacy sessions, I’ll typically pitch an elevator speech to these faculty members. Usually, faculty members teaching Ethnic Studies already incorporate community-building into the design of their courses, which makes them great candidates.

Overall, I’m hoping my efforts evolve into effective partnerships, so that I may further engage in meaningful practices centered on community building and social justice. I’m definitely in the early stages of developing my own approach towards outreach and community service. I was hoping to hear from experienced academic librarians. Would anyone be willing to share their own strategies?

Bad Art Day in the (Academic) Library

Last week, I hosted Bad Art Day, my second public program at Carroll Community College. Bad Art Day (or usually, Bad Art Night) is a popular program at public libraries, and it’s something I’ve wanted to try at an academic library for a while. The concept is pretty self-explanatory: you set out a bunch of art supplies and tell participants to go to town trying to make the ugliest piece of art that they can.

This program had simple objectives: Creativity is messy. It’s ok to make mistakes. You don’t have to be a perfectionist. I even quoted Jake the Dog from Adventure Time: “Sucking is the first step towards being sort of good at something.”

"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sort of good at something," Jake the Dog quote

I made a call for donated art supplies through our faculty newsletter, and got most of our art supplies this way! The only thing I needed to purchase was a selection of glues (glitter, stick), because all the donated glue was dried out.

I was anticipating that it would be a hard sell to get students to stop, sit down, and do an active-participation event. I was truly bracing myself to paste on a smile and say “well, sometimes the programs are a bust,” and dutifully clean up my art supplies. Instead, we had 17 participants, including a few faculty members!

Student making bad art using art supplies — An artist at work

Since starting programming in Fall 2021, our participation has been surprisingly good; there has been a real appetite for screen-free, face-to-face, low-stakes activities on this campus.

Students came between classes, they brought friends, and they chatted with each other while creating. The program was self-explanatory and students were eager to dig in to the art supplies. For the Bad Art Contest, I had the students give their pieces titles, which added to the humor and depth of the entries.

After Bad Art Day, I created little table-tents with each artist’s name and the title of their pieces, then put them all on display in the library lobby. Students could come see the ugly art, and could even vote on their favorites! Having the art on display stretched the program into the rest of the week; just about everyone who came into the library stopped to look and chuckle at the pieces.

Photo of Bad Art on display across two folding tables — The titles that the students chose were widely regarded as the best part!

Outreach and programming work is possible by yourself, but I don’t recommend it. Whether I’m making a puzzle, choosing a program, or thinking through the logistics of an interactive display, I find myself running my ideas past another person. Interested circulation staff, an eager student worker or volunteer, and even my partner and family have been called on for their two cents on the wording of a discussion question or the layout of a poster. My best ideas have come from these conversational brainstorm sessions at the desk.

No programming librarian is an island. And if you don’t have colleagues, Pinterest, blogs, library literature, and your patron audience can be your collaborators. I am finding inspiration everywhere.

Outreach as a Resident Librarian

Being a library resident has made my first year as an academic librarian an interesting experience to say the least. Through my residency, I have a level of autonomy I’ve come to realize isn’t afford to every first-year librarian. Some of my responsibilities are non-negotiable. Being an information literacy librarian on a campus where librarians are considered faculty means I have to teach a credit course, I have to publish, and I have to complete service work. Aside from teaching, I have a significant say in what the other aspects of my position look like.

Though my position didn’t come with any predesignated liaison areas, I’m still responsible for conducting outreach to my institution’s community. My autonomy has allowed me to think about the areas and populations I’m passionate about and focus my outreach efforts there. I ultimately decided that I wanted my outreach work to benefit others from similar backgrounds as mine. This meant that my outreach would be geared towards undergraduate, underserved, first-generation students. Since I wasn’t able to get much outreach experience during grad school – the second year of my program and internship was entirely remote – I knew I had to seek out advice and guidance from other librarians.

Luckily for me, my wonderful campus mentor was already working with several of the groups I was interested in supporting. More importantly, he was more than willing to let me collaborate with him in his outreach efforts. My mentor’s outreach areas include our institution’s McNair Scholars Program and the Center for Human Enrichment (CHE), another TRiO program focused on first-generation college students.

Our outreach to McNair and CHE takes on a variety of forms, but the overall strategy consists of being present during the times students will most likely be on campus. For example, both my mentor and I staff monthly office hours for each individual group. For CHE, they take place during their monthly study nights – students in the program are required to attend a certain number of CHE sponsored events each semester. For McNair, office hours are held an hour before their class starts in the McNair office. In addition to office hours, we also provide both groups with library instruction sessions. For CHE, this took the form of a library services session during orientation for the newest cohort. For McNair, instruction was more hands-on. For these students, we taught three separate sessions covering a variety of topics such as library research services, writing a literature review, and an overview of citation styles. That being said, our involvement with these groups isn’t limited to academics.

My library mentor introduced me to the idea of attending the events of your liaison groups. Though it may seem like a small gesture, I’ve come to realize that being present and participating in the social aspects of students’ lives is not only beneficial for their social-emotional wellbeing, but also demonstrates that librarians care about more than just academics. For example, this past Fall semester, my mentor and I both attended CHE’s student employee orientation and McNair’s Annual Awards Banquet. Attending these events allowed me the opportunity to get to better know the students we work with and vice-versa. Though I’m still new at my institution, I’ve quickly come to realize just how much more willing students are to meet with and ask for help from librarians they regularly see and interact with versus approaching a stranger at the reference desk. The outreach I’ve done for our campus’ César Chávez Cultural Center has served to reinforce this realization.

My institution is home to eight different cultural centers. From the Marcus Garvey Cultural Center to Veteran’s Services, each center focuses on one of the various populations present on campus. It’s important to note that resources like cultural centers can be crucial to supporting the success of underserved students, especially since BIPOC students account for half of all first-generation students. This, along with my desire to give back to and support students from my background, is why I provide outreach to my institution’s César Chávez Cultural Center.

My outreach to the Chávez Center is not that different than the outreach my colleague and I provide CHE and McNair. The Chávez Center typically hosts support events during both mid-terms and finals. In order to meet students where they’ll be, I work with the Chávez Center’s director and graduate assistant to coordinate office hours to coincide with other mid-term/finals week events held at the Center. When possible, I also do my best to attend cultural events held by the Center such as their annual Latinx Heritage Month Celebration Kickoff.

Like all good things, I’ve come to learn that building healthy outreach relationships takes time. Earning the trust of campus partners, especially those focused on supporting traditionally underserved students, doesn’t happen overnight. Assessing the fruits of that trust can be tricky but, for me, being recognized by students outside their respective social spaces serves as a significant marker of success. In one such instance, a cultural fraternity recognized me from the Chávez Center and used that connection to request a library session for the brothers themselves. Though I’m still crafting my outreach methods, being specifically sought out by students has been among my proudest moments as a first-year librarian.