Ellyssa Krsoki on Twitter in SLJ

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6573999.html

“Twitter is just one of the Web 2.0 technologies that we are using to engage students within our traditional Web page (www.pasadena.edu/library),” says Mary Ann Laun, assistant dean of library services at Shatford. “We highlight events, interesting stats, and curious facts in an effort to call attention to some of the great things happening in the library. From announcements such as ‘the system is down, ask for help at the Reference desk’ to special events, we have fun conveying quick messages to students.”

Twitter can also help promote a blog, whether you’re an individual or an organization—like YALSA. The Young Adult Library Services Association (a division of the American Library Association) uses a service called Twitterfeed to automatically generate tweets from its blog posts (twitter.com/yalsa). The result: instant content for YALSA’s Twitter profile—no extra work required—and extended marketing of the YALSA blog.

Missouri River (www.mrrl.org) is another Twitterfeed user. In addition to its blog posts, the library uses the service to import its Flickr photostream. The alternative would have been costly, according to Robin Hastings, Missouri River’s information technology manager.

“We find that [Twitterfeed] has saved us from having to create the infrastructure for a dedicated alert service that will get announcements out to patrons in the format they want—text, IM, or email—or pay someone else to do the announcing for us,” says Hastings. “[Twitter] is a new channel of communication to our patrons that is easy to use and free.”

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