toy tiger at the beach

Social media happens so fast. I mean, less than a week ago the Duolingo owl was still alive. So in between the monthly “Recently in Academic Libraries” posts, I’m hoping to pull together regular updates on what AcadLibs are doing on social. I already have a post brewing about some of my favorite go-to libraries for discovering creative social media work. In the meantime, please enjoy these recent highlights of higher ed libraries on social!

Main character energy

One of the best ways to build a community of followers and encourage them to continually re-engage with your content is to establish familiar characters who over time become instantly recognizable and, if you play your cards right, will nurture their own lore.

For example, I am incredibly invested in the relationship between the team of creators at UCSB Libraries. Their playful mix of behind the scenes content, their self-referential nods, and the way they highlight their collaboration stops me from scrolling past every time a new post hits my FYP.

Of course, you don’t need to use actors if that’s not an option for you. I am just as invested in what the Auburn University Libraries’ toy tiger (his name is Ralph) is up to. Currently, he’s at the beach.

Memes memes memes

In both #HESM (higher ed social media) and wider SMM (social media manager) professional communities, there are regularly discussions about whether to use memes, how often, and for what purposes. Even before the ascendence of short-form video, academic libraries were always shy about using memes, or using them too frequently, but following the rise of TikTok and Reels, I’ve noticed a substantial increase in the AcadLibs trying to capitalize on trending content.

Here are two safe, easy, and evergreen memes that any library could adapt: Carroll University Library using the “Can Ashley change a tire” video meme and the Bass Library at Yale using the “how are you feeling today” meme with still images of architectural features in their building.

Of course, some memes are short-lived or age quickly. I would bet the “college acceptance letter” meme will eventually fall into that category (we can only handle so much emotional tension… plus I think the trending audio for this meme is a tad bit too long). But until then, I did enjoy how Willamette University Library used it to highlight their interlibrary loan services.

Keep it local

At the most recent Library Marketing and Communications Conference in November 2024, Krystal Ruiz and Keith Kesler from Los Angeles Public Library spoke about the importance of highlighting local history in short form video. For libraries especially, it’s the type of content that connects directly with their niche audience. Academic libraries can benefit from this advice: obviously, with university archives materials, but local city/state materials as well. Such as in this Ball State video on local buildings in Indiana.

It’s not just about the stats

Finally, I want to spotlight a recent TikTok from one of my favorite accounts, UVU Library. It’s a simple green screen-style post, but it recognizes an often-overlooked demographic in academic libraries: students who are parents of young children. The post did not perform as well as their other posts (at least not at first: it’s only a day old at the time of this writing), but that’s not important. What matters is that this type of content helps specific members of our community feel seen. Sometimes, it’s about more than shares, sends, and watch-time. It’s about how our content makes our users feel.

@uvulibrary

Student parents, find peace in our family study suite! UVU Parenting Kids Student CollegeLife CollegeHumor Library

♬ original sound – uvulibrary – uvulibrary

header image: Ralph the tiger at the beach

deconstruction of library flooring showing exposed beams

News and announcements

🎭📈🗿 DePaul University Library received a state grant of $149,278 to develop OER materials for select undergraduate courses. Entitled “Open Educational Resources Design and Development Across Disciplines at DePaul University,” the grant will help create three faculty-led publications (both original and remixes) in theatre, business, and history. If successful, the project has the potential to save approximately 2,715 students a total of $234,480 over three years.

🎶📖🎤 “Do you wanna touch it? You can touch it.” Students at the University of Dayton had the opportunity to learn and sing from 15th- and 18th- century antiphon books. For their final project, the students planned a public vespers service and faculty from the music department sang from an arrangement of the antiphons.

🏀🗨📸 Basketball players from Arizona State University and the Valley Suns came together to learn about Black history in Arizona. In addition to exploring the Black Collections, part of ASU’s Community-Driven Archives Initiative, the athletes learned about Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to ASU’s Tempe campus in 1964, including a speech by King that wasn’t made public until 2014.

📚💰📚 This was not a model I was familiar with. “All NC State undergraduate students have been automatically enrolled in the new Course Ready textbook billing program. […] The program charges students a flat fee each semester to provide access to digital-only versions of their required course materials within Moodle.” The NC State University Libraries created a guide to help students navigate the program and determine if it’s right for them. Related: They also support an alt-textbook program that awards grants to faculty to adopt, adapt, or create free or low-cost alternatives to expensive textbooks.

📜🧹👑 The J. Willard Marriott Library holds 770 fragments of Arabic language papyri, dating from the 8th through the 10th centuries CE, and is currently in the process of cleaning, repairing, and re-glazing the papyri. Personal note: even though I live in Los Angeles, I had not considered the need to earthquake-proof flat materials!

🔥💖🏙 The fires in Los Angeles have been devastating. Thousands of people have lost their homes and businesses. Even though much of L.A. was physically unscathed, the disruption and impact to our community stretches far beyond the areas hit most directly. The USC Libraries created a wildfire assistance resources guide for student and faculty affected by the fires.

🍎🏗📘 “Like coring an apple.” I’ve seen more than one library this past year remove its “old stacks” (you know, the ones with short ceilings) in favor of a more open and accessible layout. That’s what is currently happening at Duke Univeristy’s Lilly Library. It’s quite amazing to see these demolition photographs of what the stacks look like with their flooring removed.

✌🏾✌🏿✌🏽 The University of Maryland Libraries has established a new program, Truth, Reconciliation, and Understanding in the University Archives, in order to lift up marginalized narratives and bring more light more complex stories of the university’s history. “TRU-UA will address important issues regarding race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and difference in abilities in the University’s history.” This program is funded in part by a $9 million (!!!) gift made to the University Archives.

🗣📙🦇 Last year, Yale Library created a new residency program to support DEIA and student success efforts and to honor the legacy of the program’s namesake, Kenya S. Flash. The inaugural resident, Nick Wantsala, has partnered with the New Haven Free Public Library to promote early literacy and a local history project.

🎓🏫📄 Stanford University Libraries employs 5-7 part-time student assistants each year to help process collections in their University Archives. Students get to choose from among several collections which they want to process. “They’re having formative experiences and making intellectual connections without the pressure of writing papers and solving problem sets,” says Assistant University Archivist Claudia Willett.

Notable mentions

black and white photo of people assembled in a court room
Clarence Darrow addressing the jury (Sue K. Hicks Papers, Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee Libraries)

On socials

The J. Willard Marriott Library posts weekly meme round-ups. Whoever is running that account has their fingers directly on the pulse of the internet. In fact, all of their content is top-notch. Here is a simply, but beautifully-designed classic book recommendation. And this instructional video on how to scan a book chapter is 😘.

This “welcome back” video from Virginia Tech Libraries gives all the good vibes. No voice over, just good beats and high-quality b-roll.

The always creative UVU Library put together a quick-and-dirty Spotify “playlist” for their students. Honestly, my only complaint is that they didn’t share a link! And I want to hear a mash-up of all the title lines from the songs, à la DJ Earworm. Related: Lauren Tolman from UVU Library talks about how to capture students’ attention by “stopping the scroll” in the latest issue of Public Services Quarterly.

Finally, this was a trend that I wish I had time to put together, but feel I’ve missed the boat. The University of Washington Libraries created a “ins and outs” for the new year video. “You’re in college. Figure it out.” 😂

banner image: renovations at Duke’s Lilly Library (source: Aaron Welborn, “Last Act for the Old Stacks)

My colleague Ray Andrade and I recently published an article on our outreach successes (and some failures) with first-year college students. We utilize a home-grown mix of programming, communications, and 1:1 connections to foster student engagement.

Starting with the knowledge that using the library within their first semester at college is correlated with academic success, the outreach team and the Hannon Library have employed a variety of tactics to get students in the door. By creating engaging orientation videos, promoting the library at in-person campus fairs, fostering word of mouth by working directly with niche communities, leveraging existing communication channels and email marketing, and hosting an open house early in the semester, we have cultivated an ecosystem in which the library’s brand can take root and thrive.

Read the whole article at Marketing Library Services (now integrated with Computers in Libraries).

praying mantis

The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead. – Swedish expression

The incongruity between the academic year and the calendar year has never felt so out of joint as it does right now. Already, the goals I set in June 2024 (which is when I set work goals for the academic year) feel a world removed. I’m ready to move on to other projects. While there is much to enjoy about working in academia, the temporal misalignment with the rest of the country’s annual work cycle is among the small annoyances.

Still, academics on the traditional semester schedule often have the weeks between late December and early January completely off so I’ve used that time to reflect and realign my work and play to my core values. (Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021)

This year, I’m hoping to finish the “reading and watching all of Shakespeare” project I stated in 2024. I made it through more than half the works before burning out in September. Now that I’ve had some time to read off the bard, I’m ready to tackle the second half of his oeuvre. Additionally, I hope to continue my occasional habit of posting “Recently in Academic Libraries” news roundups. I immensely enjoyed that process, so my goal this year is to find a way to work it into my schedule.

My theme for 2025 is “balance.” Prioritizing sleep and my physical health this past year was a huge boon to my mental health. I plan to continue that and additionally add in a new factor: music. My partner and I bought a piano last fall. I am never happier than when I’m playing music. It’s been two decades since I played (and I was never very good), but I intend to pick it back up. And possibly throw in a few additional instruments as well. 

My ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of time and attention I give to [library] work. It doesn’t bring me joy in the same way that it used to, so rather than getting mired in that feeling, I want to draw my attention toward those activities that make me happy.

What I’m reading 

🪧⛺️🚫 The Race to Pacify Protesters [paywalled] by Katherine Mangan. Universities are losing whatever moral high ground they once occupied. 

🇺🇸🕊️❤️ Jimmy Carter, Peacemaking President Amid Crises, Is Dead at 100 [gift article] Peter Baker and Roy Reed. May we all be so good with the time we have that folks wish there were more people like us around when we pass. 

🛶🕵️‍♀️📝 Archaeologists Are Finding Dugout Canoes in the American Midwest as Old as the Great Pyramids of Egypt by Jacqueline Kehoe. It’s great that folks are diving into the history of the lands where they sit. Even greater that they are working alongside indigenous communities to remap our understanding of urbanized areas. 

Links to the past 

  • 1 year ago: I was being very domestic this day.
  • 5 years ago: My son’s world is infinitely more interesting than my own.
  • 10 years ago: I have never not been obsessed with productivity systems. It’s just who I am.

Overheard online 

You may not believe in Count Orlok, but Count Orlok believes in you. – @chronodm on Mastodon

banner photo: found this lovely lady in the garden this past weekend

“Staff expect us to create posters and social media posts for every program but they’re also creating programs that the community didn’t ask for. So, when no one registers, marketing gets blamed. You have to have some tough skin to work in library marketing because everyone thinks they’re a better marketer and everyone is a critic.” (source: The State of Library Marketing in 2025: Survey Reveals New Obstacles and Frustrations)

badge from lmcc24 with my name

It’s difficult to summarize all that I’ve taken away from LMCC 2024. But I’ll try. 😁 This annual gathering of library marketing professionals reaffirms the value of all the time, effort, and skill I put in to the work I do as an outreach librarian. I’ll write more about this later after I’ve had time to process it all, but here are three key themes that emerged:

1. “If you want to capture students’ attention, it has to be worth paying attention to” (or, effective library marketing is high-quality). No one will know about your services, collections, or programs if you don’t first capture their attention, so make content that is first and foremost entertaining and engaging. If it doesn’t stop them from scrolling, it’s not going to get any eyeballs.

2. “If you’re talking to everyone you’re talking to no one” (or, effective library marketing is strategic). Your audience is not a monolith and they don’t want to be treated as one. Plan your outreach with intention if you want to have any chance of connecting what you offer to what students and faculty want.

3. “Let the professionals cook.” (or, effective library marketing is appropriately skilled and staffed). Libraries are finally starting to recognize that good marketing requires hiring folks who bring the requisite skills and giving them the space to make things happen. I can’t tell you the number of people I met this year who said they were the first professional marketer their library had ever hired. High-quality and strategic marketing takes time and experience.

Other takeaways include reaffirmation of my intention to lean more into video, especially high-quality video content; and the need to pull more analytics that might correlate my outreach work with library usage patterns.

Back in January, I joined the board of the Library Marketing and Communications Group, the team that runs the Library Marketing and Communications Conference. This annual gathering of library folks involved in marketing, communications, public relations, social media, and outreach in academic, public, and special libraries, is my favorite professional event of the year.

The first LMCC was held in 2015 in Dallas, TX, with nearly 200 attendees. I first attended LMCC the following year in 2016. In the decade since, the conference has more than doubled in size; and this year will be my fifth time attending.

I’ve written before about how much I enjoy this conference. What makes it so rewarding is the opportunity to be with folks who understand my day-to-day:

“Regardless of whether we work in academic libraries, public libraries, as librarians or as professional staff, we all speak the same language. We understand that not everything can go on the website. We know that fliers are a net waste of everyone’s time. We know that creating social media content is a specialized skill that few people actually do well. We realize that more promotion does not equal more awareness. We understand the power of storytelling. We value having a consistent brand. And yes, we all spend too much times on our phones, but secretly (or not) we enjoy it.” 

If you’re going to LMCC 2024 this week, stop me and say hello! I look forward to seeing you there. Here is what I’m planning to attend:

Tuesday, Nov. 12

  • 9:00a: Board Planning Retreat
  • 1:00p: Pre-Conference: Maximize Your Library Impact With Strategic Collection Promotion by Angela Hursh and Caleigh Haworth

Wednesday, Nov. 13

  • 9:00a: Very Demure, Very Mindful, and Very Asian Futures in Library Marketing by Michelle Li
  • 10:00a: Bite-Size Market Research Tools: Micro Surveys and Usability Studies by Mark Aaron Polger
  • 11:15a: Marketing Library Services to Transgender Patrons by Zephyr Rankin
  • 1:30p: Social Media Strategy Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast by Tanner Lewey
  • 3:00p: Beg, Borrow, Steal: Finding and Implementing Ideas for Library Outreach by Meghan Kowalski
  • 4:30p: 10th Anniversary Opening Night Reception

Thursday, Nov. 14

  • 9:00a: Been There, Done That, Do It Again – A Conversation with Experienced Library Marketers with Jennifer Burke, Meghan McCorkell, and Nicole Fowles
  • 10:00am: IDEA in Action: Your Voices Best Practices – Empowering Students, Building Bridges by Kara Price, Laura Dowell, and Michele Villagran
  • 11:15am: Building a Video Powerhouse: Project Management, Quality Standards, and Staff Development for Effective Library Marketing by Rachel Yzaguirre
  • Lunch
  • 1:30pm: Embracing Short Form Video by Keith Keslerand Krystal Ruiz
  • 4:15pm: LMCC Open House

men and women painting on a landscape model

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how academic libraries structure their support for external communications. By “external” I mostly mean on campus, though sometimes this can include communications beyond campus, especially in the case of large state universities, R1 schools, and those with fundraising needs.

This isn’t a topic I have explored in the published literature yet, but I have been poking around library websites to see what info I can glean from staff directories and organizational charts. The various configurations for managing comms I have found generally fall into four types (I call them “tiers” below), though there appears to be little consistency beyond these broad categories. If a research study on this does not already exist, I would find it worthwhile to investigate it further.

In my experience, there are three factors that make academic library communications effective: consistency, strategy, and quality. That is:

  1. creating consistent messaging, branding, and tone; 
  2. developing strategic objectives and determining metrics of success; and 
  3. maintaining a high level of quality content production and execution. 

Of the four models for communications outlined below, only libraries in tiers 1 and 2 can guarantee high levels of all three factors. This is not to say that libraries within tiers 3-4 cannot be successful, but only that it is far more difficult.

Tier 1: The comms team

I suspect this mostly exists in R1 institutions or large campuses with multiple libraries. This is when the library employs an entire team of professionals to manage its communications needs. This might include a full time social media manager, graphic designer, writer, project manager, event manager, development officer, and/or videographer. Assuming that everyone on the team has the requisite skills and experience, this is the most desirable option and the one that securely enables consist, strategic, and high quality communications.

Tier 2: The comms director

Most likely to be found at mid-size university libraries. This is when you have a single full-time person entirely dedicated to communications. Their work might also involve planning and hosting events, and may vary considerably depending on (1) whether they are a librarian or staff and (2) whether they are housed within the reference department or administration. Assuming this person has the requisite skills and experience, this is also a desirable option, though without the balance and support of a team, there is the risk that either consistency, strategy, or quality could fail over time (also, burnout is a significant threat). Nonetheless, it’s a viable option.

Tier 3: The comms hat

Also may be found at mid-size universities, but more likely to be found in smaller colleges. This is when you have a full-time staffer who has been given the extra hat of communications. This might be a solo reference and instruction librarian, a collections librarian, or even a department head but it’s not their primary role. It’s almost a certainty that one of the three success factors will, out of necessity, fall by the wayside. 

Tier 4: The comms committee

This is the least desirable arrangement: communications by committee. While I don’t doubt there are some effective uses of this model out there, I would bet most are ineffective relative to the time and effort involved. This is when no one is in charge of outreach and it just happens depending on the variable bandwidth of the members of the group. Even with the best of intentions and structure, you cannot guarantee a consistent tone or level of quality. 

Finding the right fit

Academic library outreach and communications is a different beast than what one may experience in other types of libraries. For one, an academic library’s primary audience is a limited and captive one: students and faculty. Moreover, the distance, both physical and conceptual, that messaging needs to travel is relatively short. It’s in the secondary and tertiary audiences that variety comes into play: are donors a key demo? Campus senior leadership? State officials? How important is reaching the off-campus community? 

I don’t know what might be a best practice when it comes to structuring an outreach department, but I would venture that most libraries evolve from Tier 4 to Tier 1 over time, though most will never reach beyond Tier 2 due to staffing constraints. What I do know is that working in team environment has a number of benefits, including exponentially increased bandwidth, a mutually reinforced creativity engine, and a burnout buffer. However, it is essential that all members bring the requisite level of skill and experience to the table to make this work efficiently. 

Coda: The line between outreach and communications is a fuzzy one. The terms are frequently used interchangeably (guilty) but the latter has a much deeper and longer history of best practices, theory, and scholarship, mostly outside LIS. I think many libraries slap the term “outreach” on job descriptions and titles without giving much thought to the practical skills and knowledge necessary to make that work. That might be a topic for another time.

(header photo: library_of_congress on flickr)

News and announcements

🛳️🇵🇦📸 The Northwestern University Transportation Library has digitized a collection of photographs from the construction of the Panama Canal. “The photos show both construction sites of the canal and more leisurely photos of towns and people in Panama at the time […]. Parades, family portraits, and days on the beach are all shown in the photos.” It’s a relatively small collection (153 photographs and 30 postcards), but the photographs are fascinating! 

🔍🤖✨ The University of Arkansas Libraries are testing a new natural-language search tool, powered by generative artificial intelligence, as part of its discovery interface. More importantly, they provide a brief overview of how it works for students. I love that the instructions include the step “look for the sparkles.”

🆓👩‍🏫📚 The University of Virginia Libraries has an interview with two of the faculty involved in its Open Educational Resources Learning Community, which it co-sponsors with the university’s Center for Teaching Excellence. Through the interview, they talk about the library’s role in supporting OER, student support, and offer their advice to other faculty interesting in doing similar work.

🦋🪻🐝 The Woodruff Library at Emory University recently took a patch of grass and converted it to a pollinator garden. I love to see how academic libraries take responsibility for their spaces in ways that reach beyond simple building maintenance. 

🎙️👨‍🎓🐺 A fairly recent alumni from NC State University Libraries is creating an endowment to help fund an oral history program called “Wolf Tales,” designed to help the library capture the stories of NC State alumni though video narratives and interviews. 

On social

This TikTok from the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester [TikTok] does not have nearly enough likes. I don’t know whether this pinch-zoom idea is original (though it feels meme-ish, I haven’t seen it used elsewhere), but it’s brilliantly fun and an engaging way to show off large spaces. 

https://www.tiktok.com/@rivercampuslibs/video/7392311781915446559

I have been wanting to do a “view from a book” style video for ages now. UNC Libraries [Instagram] did a fun version. The soundtrack choice is perfect. Related: Also from UNC Libraries [Facebook], they asked their followers to help them name their book trucks. The results [Instagram] did not disappoint.  

The University of Kansas Libraries [Instagram] hosted a plant swap that included crafting and items from special collections. The resulting video makes good use of b-roll footage. Reminds me that I need to capture more video at our events!

I don’t know if this counts are sponsored content or a collaboration or what, but the University of Missouri Libraries [Instagram] made a video highlighting a local ice cream shop and the joys of reading. The two best parts of summer!

Notable mentions

Renovations 

Summer time for most colleges is the season of projects that can’t be easily accomplished during the school year. Not surprisingly, it’s often the best time to renovate or make substantial progress on long-term construction projects. A number of colleges are in the midst of renovations and upgrades. Here is just a sampling, in no particular order: 

UNC Charlotte, Cornell, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Arkansas, Texas Christian University, University of Central Florida, Rowan University, MIT, Stockton, UC Santa Barbara, Harvard, Northeastern, University of Georgia [Instagram], UT Dallas, Florida Atlantic University [Instagram], UC Riverside, and Northwestern

(header photo: Transportation Library, Northwestern University Libraries)

I jokingly referred to “Rule #2 of the outreach team” in a meeting last week to which someone aptly responded, “So what are the other rules?” That’s a good question. We like to stay flexible on my team (it’s necessary when most of your work is collaboration-based), so there are rarely hard and fast rules. But here are a few maxims we live by.

  • Rule 1: Make something people want
  • Rule 2: Save everything to Box
  • Rule 3: Invite more people to the table
  • Rule 4: Dirty hands make it right
  • Rule 5: “Yes and”

Of course, rules are meant to be broken so here are the notable exceptions:

  • Rule 5 (with caveat): Yes and… but we can’t say yes to everything.
  • Rule 4 (with caveat): Dirty hands make it right… but don’t be a hero.
  • Rule 3 (with caveat): Invite more people to the table… but always be clear who will make the call.
  • Rule 2 (with caveat): Save everything to Box… [actually, there’s no exception to this rule]
  • Rule 1 (with caveat): Make something people want… but sometimes you have to make them want to want it first.