School Library Social Media: I Did It for the Gram

 I was really excited to see this week's blog topic - I am definitely one of those people who has a love of social media, and I have I have found it useful in so many areas of my life! I understand the negative effects, but for me it has been instrumental in building my PLN, curating new ideas, and finding the best 30 minute meal recipes.

Which Social Media Platform?

Dr. Green's presentation and this week's readings confirmed what I already suspected, which is that I want to use Instagram as the social media platform for my future middle school library. Jensen's article makes the important point of students not using or gaining anything from having to use a social media platform they don't already connect with. My middle grades students (and their parents) both still use Instagram the most out of the four social media platforms we were able to choose from. TikTok is certainly starting to take over for videos, but students are still using Instagram for pictures and will connect with posts on it much more than they would on Facebook or Twitter.

Finsta for Now

I am currently a classroom teacher and will be transitioning into the role of school librarian next school year. Unfortunately, I can't apply to our district public media office for permission to use Instagram to promote the school library until then. Instead, I have created a fake school which has the same mascot and school colors as my current school. This way, I might be able to transfer over images and posts I create which are still relevant. My hypothetical school is RH Middle School (RHMS), and their mascot is the knight. I created a Finsta (fake instagram) for this school and currently have two posts.

I used Canva to make my profile image and both of my current posts. I already use Canva with my students and for creating classroom content, and I find the program both fun and easy to use. I have started with two posts to highlight the newest list of South Carolina Junior Book Awards (SCJBA) Nominees. Each year a board of librarians, teachers, and students nominates twenty middle grades books for this award. School libraries encourage students to read at least three books of the twenty, and then students are able to vote for their favorite. These votes go towards helping to select the overall winner, which is announced at SCASL's annual conference.

RHMS Instagram Profile

Post #1

Post #1

For post #2 I tried out Canva's animation abilities to create a short video post for my account, and I am really happy with how it turned out and how quickly I was able to create it. The video post is below:

How Will Instagram Be Used?

My Instagram account will be used in three different ways to support what is happening within the school library: instruction and collaboration, communication, advocacy.

Instruction & Collaboration

I would love to create posts which highlight what students are learning and creating related to literacy and inquiry. I would post photos of students at work and finished products of the things they create using library lessons and resources. Partnering with classroom teachers would also be key to this area. I would also make short videos reminding students about topics related to digital literacy and digital citizenship.

Communication

I would use Instagram to post about and promote library programming such as book clubs, makerspace activities, new additions, other reader's advisory related information. Humans, and especially tweens and teens, are very visually focused, so posting images of amazing new book covers, digital flyers for programming, etc. would be really helpful for communicating with students and their adults.

Advocacy

I firmly believe students should be allowed to self-select books from the library to read. I would use Instagram to advocate for the benefits of reading a variety of genres, included graphic novels which some teachers and parents still view as being lesser than other genres. I would also advocate for a censorship-free space and students' first amendment rights by posting information during Banned Books Week, Read Across America Week, and throughout the year to promote the library's responsibility to serve all students who access the space. Lastly, I would advocate for students' ability to use the library space for tinkering, collaborating, and creating as part of my programming. I would highlight how the library is a space for more than just books or reading, and how it benefits the school as a whole when students are learning how to collaborate, inquire, and create.

References:

Jensen, L. J. (2019). Integrating social media into online education. Library Technology Reports, 55(4), 27–30.

Wetta, M. (2016). Instagram now: Engage young users with the image-based social media tool. School Library Journal, February, 30–32.