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Computers in Libraries Conference, Washington DC
By admin | March 23, 2011
Day 2
One point here that keeps coming up is the idea of “buzz” and digital usage in the 21st century library. Who is talking about our library? What are they saying? Where are they coming from? Where do they go? How do we find out? In a session entitled, “Cool Tools: Measuring, Visualizing, and Analyzing What Libraries Do” several options were explored.
The most popular is Google Analytics. Anyone with a Google Account can take advantage of this free tool. Google provides the user with a code to embed right into your page. This allows you to check in to count clicks and usage and provides visual charts and graphs of the information. This is especially useful if you are thinking about restructuring your library’s website. Where are people going? What do they consistently miss? This is mostly straight statistics counting in your digital environment to compliment what you already measure inside the library. In a world where people expect a 24/7 environment, this simple measure can be very telling about your online presence.
Most libraries have a Facebook page. Facebook has recently added a feature for fan pages and groups to monitor usage. It is relatively easy to count friends, likes, and reposts, but it is considerably more difficult to count the engagement level of your friends or fans. This tool allows an admin to follow the amount of people directed to your page, viewing your page, or clicking on your links. These counts constitute buzz. Libraries will always have vocal advocates, but fostering this online involvement is becoming equally important.
If your library maintains a Facebook page, a blog, and also tweets, you may find HootSuite useful. This site acts as a social media dashboard, allowing you to post to several social media platforms at once from one place. It was mentioned that using this tool for emergency library closings or sudden changes in programming had been especially helpful. The site also offers real time aggregated statistical information about usage and influence.
If you are interested more in what people are saying outside your library, you may want to check out howsociable.com. It measures total web visibility using nearly every known social media tool on the web. It counts mentions from all corners of the web and allows you to see those mentions, whether somebody tweeted, “the librarian at X Library was super unfriendly” or posted to Facebook, “just went to a reading with David Sedaris at X Library and it was AWESOME!” These candid reactions are more helpful than a formal survey, since what we communicate is becoming more and more instantaneous.
These are only a few of the sites that are offering feedback in the online environment, and are ones that I, in particular, was impressed and intrigued by. If you are interested in more of these tools, feel free to email me, and I’d be happy to point you to more.
Google Analytics Blog
HootSuite
HowSociable
Topics: 21st Century Skills in Libraries, Future of Libraries, Technology | 1 Comment »
March 24th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Some great tools listed – a couple are new to me, such as HootSuite. Measuring online engagement is important and no simple – but it’s a needed effort on our parts if we want to satisfy our resource allocators that it’s “time well spent.” Cody Hanson has published a blog post calling us to pay attention http://bit.ly/hK5AiS