Social Media Plan for the Library Currents Blog Website

Library Innovations and Social Media by Mickel Paris for SJSUs LIBR 298 September 30, 2013 Purpose & Objective: The purpose of this social media plan is to develop a new blog within the Library and Information Science (LIS) field that serves as a resource for LIS professionals. The blog is titled Library Currents and will be designed to facilitate conversation about new library innovations and the impact of social media on library services. The blog will also provide useful tips and resources that readers can begin implementing immediately within their libraries.

Mission Statement: The mission statement for Library Currents follows:

Library Currents is a needed online resource for the LIS Professional community to provide up-to-the-moment trends about library innovations and social media. Content is created to provide LIS Professionals with new competencies, lifelong learning, and professional enrichment, leading to a greater understanding of future user need and participatory library culture in a Web 2.0 world.

Background & Activities: Library Currents was conceived as an independent studies graduate
project by Mickel Paris in the Masters of Library Science program at San Jose State University (SJSU). His advisor on the project is Dr. Michael Stephens, an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at SJSU. Professor Stephens research centers on emerging technologies and technology learning programs (Stephens, 2013), and he teaches a course at SJSU entitled The Hyperlinked Library, which was the inspiration for Library Currents. The course covers emerging technologies in libraries and how they help libraries develop a participatory culture, where the library becomes user-centered. The Hyperlinked Library has garnered a following and is now a massive open online course (MOOC) available to the LIS community and interested professionals (SJSU, 2013). Library Currents will be hosted at the domain www.librarycurrents.com and will initially consist of a blog and a resource directory. Articles and postings in the blog will be written and curated by Mickel Paris. Library Currents will also host a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/librarycurrents and a Twitter account at www.twitter.com/librarycurrents to encourage social media interaction with blog content. The initial launch of www.librarycurrents.com will be a Beta release of Library Currents and follows the Alpha project blog hosted on Tame the Web (Paris, 2013). The Library Currents Project Alpha exemplifies the use of social media planning and philosophies in The Hyperlinked Library, and is a step-by-step model of how to start a self-hosted LIS blog from concept to content creation.

Resources: Research was collected during August and September of 2013 to determine what
members of the LIS community and tech community are talking about when it comes to social media and emerging technologies. A listening post was put together using RSS feeds of major LIS and tech blogs, and a Facebook page and Twitter account were set up to follow LIS and Tech social media pages. The LIS literature was consulted, as well, to find primary sources in the study of social media and innovation in libraries. Pew Internet Research polls were some of the sources reviewed to obtain scientific data on the trends of social media and emerging technologies in libraries. A project blog was maintained on the LIS website TameTheWeb.com to discuss the information found during the research stage. A sample of the sources used in researching the topics of emerging technologies and social media are offered below:

Library Literature Sources

Abbott, W., Donaghey, J., Hare, J., & Hopkins, P. (2013). An instagram is worth a thousand words: An industry panel and audience q&a. Library Hi Tech News, 30(7), 1-6. doi: 10.1108/LHTN-082013-0047 Accart, J. (2013). Branding your library through social media. Library Hi Tech News, 30(5). Del Bosque, D., Leif, S., & Skarl, S. (2012). Libraries atwitter: trends in academic library tweeting. Reference Services Review, 40(2), 199-213. doi: 10.1108/00907321211228246 Moorefield-Lang, H. (2013). Augmenting reality in your school's library. Library Media Connection, 32(1), 26-27. Tay, A. , Glass, G. , & Chew, S. (2013). Using foursquare: Check-ins are not just for books! Library Management, 34(6/7), 433-447. doi: 10.1108/LM-07-2012-0047

Pew Internet Research Sources

Brenner, J., & Smith, A. (2013). 72% of online adults are social networking site users. Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/socialnetworking-sites/Findings.aspx Duggan, M., & Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users - 2012. Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users/The-State-of-Social-MediaUsers.aspx Smith, A. (2011). Why Americans use social media. Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Why-Americans-Use-Social-Media/Mainreport.aspx Zickuhr, K., Rainie, L., & Purcell, K. (2013). Teen content creators and consumers. Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/01/22/library-services/ Zickuhr, K. (2013). Location-based services. Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Location/Overview.aspx

World Wide Web Blog and RSS Sources

Braun, L. (2013, September 6). Sharing public domain ebooks with the Book Elf. The Digital Shift. Retrieved from http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/09/ebooks/sharing-public-domain-ebookswith-the-book-elf/ Harrysson, M., Metayer, E., & Sarrazin, H. (2012, November). How social intelligence can guide decisions. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/how_social_intelligence_can_ guide_decisions Enis, M. (2013, September 11). Figshare debuts repository platform for institutions. The Digital Shift. http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/09/publishing/figshare-debuts-repository-platform-forinstitutions/ Columbus, L. (2013, September 12). IDC: 87% of connected devices sales by 2017 will be tablets and smartphones. Forbes. Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/09/12/idc-87-of-connected-devices-by-2017will-be-tablets-and-smartphones/

Action Brief: Library Currents was created to convince LIS Professionals that by implementing and
mastering social media and emerging technologies, they will discover innovative ways to engage the user, thereby creating a following of rabid fans that will build upon a participatory, user-centered library culture.

Social Media Policy: Creating a social media policy is a top priority for Library Currents,
especially since the website blog will be designed to encourage conversation both on the blog and in Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools. A social media policy creates positive outcomes for both staff and patrons, and sets a firm structure for responding on behalf of users experiencing negative comments or conversations with others (Junco, 2011). By acknowledging the need to encourage conversation while also setting firm rules of interaction, the social media policy creates an environment that is inviting to all users and supports the mission of the blog. This, in turn, creates a welcoming and valuable community where users are able to exhibit good judgment while also respecting copyright and fair use. (Lauby, 2009). The following social media policy will be posted in the footer of each page of the Library Currents website, with inbound links from the Library Currents Facebook, Twitter and other social networking accounts.
Library Currents Social Media Policy Social Media is defined as a web-based or mobile technology, such as a website, web app or Web 2.0 tool, that allows users to interact in a virtual environment and share opinions or information. Social Media includes activities inherent in blogging, social networking, commenting, content curation and social sharing. Library Currents encourages the sharing of opinions regarding library innovations and social media, and respects the differences of opinion users may have with each other, but does not endorse any one users opinion or viewpoint. Posted comments are the opinion of the author, and any user submission of a comment constitutes acceptance of the guidelines in this social media policy. Library Currents will review all comments, and inappropriate comments may be edited or removed if they contain any of the following: 1) Obscene or vulgar comments in general or directed to another user 2) Promotion of any illegal activity 3) Personal attacks, libelous statements or threatening language 4) Content containing malicious viruses or malware 5) Spam comments or promotional content 6) Plagiarized or copyrighted materials 7) Organized political or religious activity 8) Comments unrelated to the article, discussion, or posted content 9) Personal information posted without consent of the owner or about a minor 10) Content that perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, ancestry, age, sex, gender, disability, sexual orientation, military service or other minority status. Submission of comments also indemnifies Library Currents, its officers and staff from all liabilities or damages arising from posted content. Library Currents is not obligated to take any actions noted above and is not responsible for content posted by users. All comments are published in a public space accessible by anyone, and it is not considered a private forum. Library Currents encourages users to use their real names, but non-offensive screen names are allowed as well.

Every attempt will be made by Library Currents to abide by international, federal, state and local copyright laws. Both Library Currents staff and users are asked to include original links to sources quoted from another author, blog, journal or publication, and to also attribute credit to original authors of images and other media via hyperlink. Library Currents may friend, follow or link to other pages and social media accounts in order to share content and create conversation, and reserves the right to de-friend, unfollow, or de-list other social media accounts if they are found to broadcast unacceptable content. Library Currents is not responsible for the content of the social media pages and accounts it friends, follows or links to.

Funding: The costs associated with setting up and hosting a blog are nominal, and have been showed
to be affordable in case studies and library interviews (Kajewski, 2007). Many blogging and content management system (CMS) platforms, such as Wordpress and Drupal, are free to download under the GNU General Public License. Rutherford (2008) states that many costs are hidden, such as time taken for training on the CMS or upkeep costs. The Library Currents Project Alpha is currently funded by Mickel Paris using funds set-aside from federal student financial aid. Costs incurred may include hosting blogging software and/or purchasing licenses for third-party plug-ins. The Beta Release of Library Currents may incur additional expenses in hiring coders from Fiverr.com in the event certain bugs pop up or fixes need to be made to HTML, PHP, or CSS code. At this time, there are no plans to hire staff during the Beta release, and there will be no costs for training. The Beta version of Library Currents will continue to be funded by Mickel Paris, but future funding possibilities include embedding Google AdSense onto blog pages to offset the costs of web hosting, using Kickstarter to further develop the website, or working with a silent partner or organization.

Action Steps & 5-Year Plan: The process of implementing the Library Currents Beta site at
www.librarycurrents.com will take place over the course of the month of October 2013. The implementation phase follows the planning phase that took place in September 2013, and precedes the content and evaluation phase that takes place in November and the first week of December (which is the end of the Fall Semester at SJSU and marks the official end of the LIBR 298 Independent Studies Library Currents project). Library Currents will transition from a school project into a lifelong learning blog in December 2013, and from there will remain in Beta release until several guiding metrics are achieved. These benchmarks show the potential that Library Currents can eventually achieve, and ensures that Library Currents moves no faster than existing user need. These are only guides, as page likes do not necessarily translate into actual numbers of library professionals in the audience or quality of conversation. The 5-year Plan offers additional possibilities for the Library Currents blog if it is released past Beta, however if could remain in Beta perpetually depending on community need. Even so, Johnson (2011) has remarked that perpetual beta is a good thing, as it allows continued social evolution: It's a new lens through which to see and experience the world' - it's a place where opportunity and innovation exist interdependently presenting us with new paths and a new narrative; stories that inspire a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. Understanding this fully is, in part, learning how we can authentically drive content across platforms to create new experiences (para. 3). Library Currents can become that lens no matter what stage of development it is in, starting from Day One.

The Action Plan for the Beta release follows: Day One: Submit Social Media Plan to the Library Currents Alpha project blog for feedback from the LIS community. (Oct 1) Week 1: Research different CMS platforms, such as Wordpress and Drupal (Oct 5) Week 2: Set up a prototype or demo website for each platform researched (Oct 12) Week 3: Test and demo various applications, themes or plug-ins (Oct 19) Week 4: Choose a CMS and install it on a web host; check for errors and bugs (Oct 26) Week 5: Review the process in a written report and submit to community (Oct 30) Week 6: Research the various types of content creation possible; generate lists of library innovation and social media resources for the resource link directory (Nov 9) Week 7: Create an original blog posting; curate links for resource directory (Nov 16) Week 8: Write a second original blog posting (Nov 23) Week 9: Create an evaluation prototype (Nov 30) Week 10: Conduct quality control on the site to ensure it is bug and error-free (Nov 5) Staffing & Training: For the Beta release, the only staff is principal owner Mickel A. Paris, who will self-train on CMS platforms, applications and plug-ins during the testing process. Following the Beta release A 5-Year Plan: Stage 1 Laying the Foundation (Beta) 1. Launch Library Currents website. 2. Create a social media presence using Facebook page and Twitter. 3. Build and diversify content on LibraryCurrents.com; invite guest bloggers to join in conversation. Goal - Guiding metrics for the end of Stage 1: Facebook Friends: 1,000+ LibraryCurrents.com 500 visitors/month. (Guiding metrics guide us to where Library Currents should be in terms of audience size before moving onto the next stage). Stage 2 Develop the Conversation (Beta) 4. Expand in a wider variety of social networks and develop deeper connections with users using business and marketing techniques. Transform social media presence into a social media brand. 5. Cultivate relationships with libraries, information organizations, bloggers and other groups. 6. Network with LIS professionals, bloggers and librarians at online and in-person conferences. Goal - Guiding metrics for the end of Stage 2: Facebook Friends: 10,000+ LibraryCurrents.com 5,000 visitors/month. Stage 3 Develop the Social Architecture 7. Create a core team of library professionals to strategize and coordinate future editorial content, social media efforts and strategic planning activities.

8. Development of crowdsourcing tools and strategies for content generation. 9. Develop a branded Library Currents presence at LIS conferences. Goal - Guiding metrics for the end of Stage 1: Facebook Friends: 100,000+ LibraryCurrents.com 25,000 visitors/month. Stage 4 Launching a National Brand 10. Cultivate relationships with nationally known LIS organizations and business groups, and personalities. 11. Development of a Library Currents Social Networking site. 12. Development of a Library Currents Publication.

Promotion, Marketing & Conversations: Library Currents will market its website blog,
articles and directory by promoting new content on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google News. Information highways will be created between the blog and social networking sites using application programming interfaces (API) to make the process automated. Additional display advertising may be bought on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to increase the reach of Library Currents to users searching for information about library innovation and emerging technologies. Word of mouth will be supported through the use of social share apps on each article or directory page of the blog. New features of the website may be sent to the media through the use of press releases and other notices. Future possibilities for marketing may include promotional cards or representation at library conferences. Conversations will be supported through the use of commenting systems on blog articles social networking sites, and new ideas for the site will be encouraged. Guest bloggers may be invited to create additional conversation on the website. The use of Web 2.0 tools such as Skype or Google Hangouts may also be used if supported by the member community.

Goals & Evaluation: Casey and Stephens (2008) mention that keeping track of hits and comments
is a good evaluative tool to determine usage of the site. Traffic usage can be used to determine what the most popular subjects are, and the areas to tighten focus on. The subjects of conversation should also be tracked, as quality of interaction is also important, such as whether users have implemented suggestions in their own libraries, or if users are unhappy with Library Currents. The mindful prescription of goals and objectives is the first step in maintaining high levels of content creation and user interest, and creates a strong foundational basis for assessment. The following two goals and their objectives will be set for the Beta Release of Library Currents: Goal #1: Provide regular, original content for the Library Currents blog in 2014 and beyond. Objective #1A: Create one original post every two weeks regarding a new library innovation or social media application during Q1 and Q2 of 2014. Objective #1B Raise frequency of original postings and create a weekly column (i.e. Social Media Sundays.) Goal #2: Encourage high-quality conversations within Library Currents in 2014 and beyond. Objective #2A: Ask all users to leave a comment in each post, and respond to every single comment, like or tweet regarding Library Currents to keep the conversation going.

Objective #2B: Invite one guest blogger to write a post every month on library innovations or social media in Q1 and Q2 of 2014; increase the invitations to 2 every month by Q3 and Q4. An initial evaluation of the November rollout of the Library Currents Beta release will occur on December 5th to determine the initial response of Library Currents in the blogosphere. A report will be shared regarding the sites traffic and usage. It will still be too early to determine if users will have utilized the resources to good effect within their libraries, but users will be asked to share their stories, if possible. Above all, the assessment of the effectiveness of Library Currents will be ongoing, and the initial report will be a sample of the types of data that will be collected and analyzed. Following the first year of data collection, a better picture will develop as to how readers are using Library Currents, and the results will be shared at the end of 2014. This ongoing assessment will determine future topics of conversation, future collaborations/partnerships, and the future growth/size of Library Currents, itself. As a result, this social media plan becomes a living document as suggested by Stephens (2006), where the blogs success and importance grows and changes based on the needs of users, thus providing helpful resources and innovations to the LIS community.

References:
Casey, M., & Stephens, M. (2008, April). The transparent library: Measuring progress. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6547089.html Johnson, S. (2011). A perpetual state of beta. B & T Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.bandt.com.au/features/a-perpetual-state-of-beta Junco, R. (2011, February). The need for student social media policies. Educause Review Online. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/need-student-social-media-policies Kajewski, M. (2007). Emerging technologies changing our service delivery models. The Electronic Library, 25(4), 420-429. Lauby, S. (2009, June). 10 must-haves for your social media policy. Mashable.com. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/ Paris, M. (2013). Library Currents project blog. Retrieved from the Tame the Web website: http://community.tametheweb.com/mickelparis/ Rutherford, L. (2008). Implementing social software in public libraries: An exploration of the issues confronting public library adopters of social software. Library Hi Tech, 26(2), 184-200. doi:10.1108/07378830810880306 SJSU (2013). Hyperlinked library MOOC. School of Library and Information Science. Retrieved from http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/programs/moocs/hyperlinked-library-mooc Stephens, M. (2006). Into a new world of librarianship. OCLC.org. Retrieved from http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm Stephens, M. (2013). About Michael Stephens. Tame the Web. Retrieved from http://www.tametheweb.com/about-michael-stephens/