Mobile Technology: Sweet Tweets From the MSU Library

One common thread running through the whole Library and Information Technology Program is the fact that libraries have always adapted to the times. This is what has kept libraries open and relevant. Adapting usually means exploiting current technology, including mobile.

In May 2012, the Montana State University Library brought together a social media group to determine how to utilize social media in their work. Librarians Scott Young and Doralynn Rossman, authors of the linked article that describes the project and its results, worked from a theory called digital dualism, which rejects the notion of a division between the online and offline world. Because they found that most social media used by libraries consisted of “broadcast-based promotion and marketing” (21), they decided to test its effectiveness in community-building efforts instead, and to build a “community of student participants” (22).  

The experiment consisted of assigned to post tweets and interact with users through Twitter in a “welcoming, warm, energetic” tone. Instead of promoting events in an impersonal tone, new tweets had personality and invited interaction:

The result? A 366% increase in student users. Take a look at this chart:

I imagine that no data resulting from the project and its assessment was as rewarding to the Library as the following exchange:

The librarian essentially took the Ask-A-Librarian function off the library website and took it to the students where they were. The revamped Twitter presence casts a new revitalized modern image of the library. Projects like the MSU Library’s make it clear that mobile technology most definitely has its place in our libraries.