Libraries as Social Hubs: Building Online Community to support the Offline Community

 By Shinichi Evans

In the offline world, libraries function as social hubs with programs and events to reach the community. While people do come together seating at tables, chairs, and cubicles to read, study, or use the WIFI, libraries bring people together more directly through story times, workshops, maker spaces, and events hosted at the library. Individuals may find out about these programs through fliers displayed at exits or a literal message board in a prominent place… or they may find out about these things through the libraries website or more so through its social media site.

While it is useful for public libraries to have a website apart from the catalog service, people are more likely to get their information about what. the library is doing through Facebook, Instagram, or Tik Tok. While each of these applications functions differently in how they deliver content and engage with their followers, these social media accounts are building community as they inform and entertain. As followers for the library’s account increase, the more it builds community with its numbers and how users may “like”, comment on posts, and even reply to other comments. While the people behind these accounts having a personality and being authentic may help drive engagement, users may have expectations of an institution that are different to the ones they have for people they see as friends. Here, the library on social media functions as a virtual meeting place, which is a different kind of parasocial relationship they have with the fun librarian they happen to enjoy hanging out with on Tik Tok. In “Building Communities with Large Group Methods and Social Media”, Ryan Deschamps states, “While libraries, especially public ones, have always been places for learning and connecting, social media and LGMs have the ability to enrich a community’s experience of a library” (2010).

Here, a library’s social media presence is like the library away from the library. However, the library’s social media presence on various platforms like Facebook or Instagram can be used to enhance the offline community meeting in the physical library branch, like allowing patrons to take pictures and post, and tagging the library (Deschamps 2010). The library can also invite users into the conversation, posting a talking point that invites replies, allowing users to post relevant responses and share stories that are on-topic with others liking and resharing those posts along with connecting with comments of their own. Scott W. H. Young and Dorothy Rossman in “Building Library through Social Media” write, “ By making users feel connected to a community and increasing their knowledge of other members, ‘sites such as Facebook can foster norms of reciprocity and trust and, therefore, create opportunities for collective action’” (2015).

While the library doesn’t have to be a personality that grabs and holds the social media user’s attention, it is important that users feel they are communicating with them. Here, what is often stated about authenticity in social media platforms for individual accounts holds true for organizational accounts - the need for authenticity. To engage people in the community and help foster community through a virtual platform, people need to understand there is a person or team behind the posts, not a bot. Young and Rossman in looking at Montana State University Library discuss that the library’s social media has gone from a “rather drab affair” with “automated content, low responsiveness, no dedicated personnel, and no strategic vision” (2015). Here, the updates may be relevant but have the feeling of being put out by a bot. Even if the information is important, this low-fi approach to engagement can easily lose those who follow it as there’s no feeling of community here. By making tweets that allow responses like “tweet @msulibrary and we will help you,” users can reply with their research questions and get responses, as shown in this response thread (Young and Rossman 2015).

With community programming, using social media with tools that allow users to respond with suggestions can be helpful in creating programs that are relevant to the community. Here, online tools like social media replies or wikis or a Google Docs allows users to add information and the library account admins and library professionals can use the information they get from members of the community to see what they want (Deschamps 2010). This doesn’t guarantee all of those ideas can be implemented, but this is a form of community engagement that is more interactive than the suggestion box that would sit on the circulation desk. The library’s social media admins can narrow down the suggestions by getting members of this online community to vote on a Facebook or X/Twitter poll or link to something like Survey Monkey or Google Forms to collect the votes.

Overall, social media accounts can be used by libraries to build community by engaging with patrons and those who may be interested in using their local public library branch by creating posts that not only inform but allow conversation. The libraries can also help build community by using their accounts and other online tools to allow feedback on what they want for their local branches. 

References

Deschamps, R. (2010). Building Communities with Large Group Methods and Social Media. Feliciter, 56(5), 198–200.

Young, S. W. H., & Rossmann, D. (2015). Building Library Community Through Social Media. Information Technology & Libraries, 34(1), 20–37.