When I searched “school library” in Facebook, what came up was mostly in the category of pages for school librarians in a professional capacity. There was everything from memes to ideas for displays and lessons. These pages were to connect librarians all over the world. The couple of high schools I found were a closed group without much access for me but it did have a low usage rate. There was one school in another country that I could access but the only thing they seemed to post were memes and pictures of a couple events. The posts were about every 2 weeks, so not very often. Based on this I can’t completely say the popularity of Facebook is going away but that school libraries don’t seem to be using it much. This could be due to many different reasons. Perhaps they have used it in the past and it was unsuccessful, perhaps there are school librarians reluctant to use it, maybe they use other sites with more success and/or maybe they are prohibited by district or state guidelines as well.
Libraries could use Facebook to relate events schedules, everyday activities, keep communication between families and the school and give access to amazing resources.
Instagram has infinitely more school library resources. This includes: school library pages, school library ideas and access to many school librarians and their innovative ideas.
Twitter also has more library friendly and librarians on it’s network. The more I see, the more it looks like Facebook is not as big as it once was and is being replaced for certain things.
A librarian with flair, is how I would describe @GwynethJones. She links many ideas through social media to keep the students at her library interested and engaged. There is an awesome video #musicalbookcases where she has students walk around bookcases until the music stops for an interactive book selection activity. She is great at bringing digital tech into the lives of those students! You can also find her here: The Daring Librarian, @thedaringlibrarian
While going through some instagram posts I found @kathyschrock. She has a link to her awesome page, Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Saying she is an ed tech seems so simple for all of the things she does and shares. On this site she has links to so much digital tech it seems overwhelming at first. However, she has provided great resources for not just librarians but classroom teachers, students and other ed techs. I have no doubt that I will continue to use her as a resource for many years to come.
