#followalibrary #myfavoritebook

#Followalibrary day October 1st 2011

2011-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Just like last year there will be a #followalibrary day on October First :-).This year we added a subject: #myfavoritebook. Libraries give access to many great books that people love to read and we want to know what your favorite one is.

What do I have to do on October first?
Make a tweet about your favorite book and add the hashtag #followalibrary.
For instance:

Share your greatest book inspirations with the rest of the world on October 1st 2011 on Twitter

Photo

Followalibrary poster. Use it for promotion!

2011-09-28T06:32:00.001-07:00

We have made a poster.
You can use it to promote your library.

Download
Print
Fill in your twittername
Hang it.

Take a picture of it and show it, just like @RegionbiblSthlm did.

Followanarchive Tomorrow Nov 12 Are you going to join in too?

2010-11-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

We support our collegues at the archives! They where the reason why we organized a followalibrary day. And on November 12 it is going to be their day on twitter. So twitter about your favorite archive and also add the hashtag: #followanarchive to your tweet.

So here it is thumbs up for the archives!

All #followalibrary information in a nutshell

And what did we get out of all this?

2010-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

It all started with a short comment on a blog post and resulted in a great worldwide twitter event: the follow-a-library day on October 1st. We loved organising it and learned a lot about libraries, librarians, patrons and the role that social media can play in bringing them together.

Our main goal was to put libraries and their great work in the spotlight on Twitter. We were hoping that the positive online attention would increase the number of followers for libraries. It is very hard to determine the success rate of this objective. The only feasible way to achieve this would be to ask every individual library that was mentioned in a #followalibrary tweet on October 1st, how many followers they gained on that day. But a lot more happened on that day than we anticipated.

The results
Overall more than 7000 tweets were made. We found 12 inspiring videos on YouTube from librarians about the day that attracted a 1000 views in a short time span. Our seven promotion films on YouTube attracted 3000 views. A lot of blogs worldwide paid attention to the subject. All impressive numbers that reached far above our expectations. But just as remarkable were the tweets that we read that day and afterwards.

It was fascinating to read what impact libraries have on peoples lives. And they were not only talking about the twittering ones. Besides patrons finding new twittering libraries, librarians also met each other that day. We saw quite a number of tweets of the new connections that were formed. Finally libraries were promoting each other. This meant to us that it wasn’t just about individual organisations looking for online promotion. It was about forming a united front to emphasise the importance and impact libraries have on peoples lives and society.

Thank you
We want to give a big big big thank you to everybody that joined in on October 1st. The great tweets, videos en blog posts, fantastic photos of the QR-poster and other pictures of promotional activities. We loved all the creativity of our worldwide colleagues.

A special thanks to Michael Stephens, David Lee King and Stephen Abram for participating in the videos and their promotion activities. Also the Wang Library, Mylee Joseph and the followanarchive crew for their input.

Next worldwide library events

On November 12 it is #followanarchive day on twitter
Cycling for libraries
How about #followalibrary 2011? Does anyone want to organise it next year? You won’t get any money, but the reward is so much bigger than that :-) If so, you can contact us via email, twitter or a comment on this post.

Anything to share?
If you can tell us how many new followers your library gained on or after October 1st, if you have written a blog post about #followalibrary or if there is anything else you want to share about your #followalibrary experiences, please post a comment here!

It would be great to hear from you!

The followalibrary crew 2010

Poulus Bliek, Wilma van den Brink, Lukas Koster, Edwin Mijnsbergen, Ad Aerts, Harriet de Man

Video update from Haarlem City Library (NL)

2010-10-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

What we've been up to today, October 1st 2010, at Haarlem City Library, following all #followalibrary activity around the world.

Great videos on #followalibrary

2010-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

We absolutely love these videos. Keep up the great work everyone!

If you add the "followalibrary" tag to your youtube #followalibrary videos they will show up in our #followalibrary twub

from Jan Holmquist
on twitter: www.twitter.com/janholmquist

from Daenel

on twitter: www.twitter.com/DaenelT

from Wellington City Libraries

on twitter: www.twitter.com/wcl_library

from Harris County Public Library

on twitter: www.twitter.com/harriscountypl

from Jessamyn West

on twitter: www.twitter.com/jessamyn

Stephen Abram and #followalibrary

2010-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Only a few days to go and it wil be October 1st! :-)
We talked to Stephen Abram and asked him what he thinks about the upcoming library event on Friday.

The Follow a Library promotion poster. Print it. Hang it.

2010-09-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

We have made a poster.
You can use it to promote your library.

Download
Print
Fill in your twittername
Hang it.

Take a picture of it and show it, just like @RegionbiblSthlm did.

Make your own followalibrary promotion video

2010-09-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

Challange: make your own follow a library promotion video.

Put it on YouTube and share it with us/ the world.

Use your Flip, you smarthphone, handycam. Use your inspiration. Be creative.

Let the world know: October 1st is Follow a library day on Twitter

Dare too Share

David Lee King is doing it too on Oct 1st

2010-09-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

Promote your library's twitter feed

2010-09-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

Michael Stephens wrote some tips / ideas to promote your library's twitter feed, and to promote #followalibrary day

Embed one of the followalibrary video's in your library’s blog or Web site and write a little blurb about your own library’s Twitter presence.
Make a companion video highlighting the project and the faces behind your library’s Twitter presence.
Add info about the project to your other sites for online presence: Facebook, etc. Share with your friends everywhere.
Print up some of those ever popular bookmarks, inserts, fliers, stickers, etc (and do it quick) and send them out the door with your patrons.
Put up some fliers, get some local press coverage, and be sure to share the idea with your own followers.

Lukas made a button for #followalibrary-day

Want this button?
Just copy and paste this HTML
into your webpage:

Give your library a twitter makeover for followalibrary day

2010-09-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

Erin Logsdon (@taxonomylady) wrote a blogpost with some great tips how to give your library a twitter makeover for follow a library day.

Having a complete profile (Location, Web, Bio) is important for two reasons. One, the text in these fields in keyword searchable, so it will help people find you if the information is complete and relevant. Two, people use the profile information as a contextual way of understanding who you are and the purpose of your Twitter account. Can they ask you a question via Twitter or do you only use the account to push news stories and other content?

Adding the name of the person responsible for tweeting in the Bio is a great way to add a human element to the account. It also lets people know who to contact if they need further assistance.

Read all the makeover tips from Erin on Beyond Sliced Bread

Michael Stephens is doing it on Oct 1st

2010-09-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

#Followalibrary Teaser premiere at #TWIL

2010-08-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the premiere of our official teaser for the Followalibrary project at the programma of This Week in Libraries. We (Ad and I) were very excited to be on this popular library show from Erik Boekesteijn en Jaap van de Geer at the Public Library in Amsterdam.

The teaser shows us (the Followalibrary crew) and will explain in two magic minuts who we are and what our main target is for the international Followalibrary day on Oct 1st. If you want to spread the teaser on the internet in your country, than please do. It has a Creative Commons Licence The more people know and join our campaign the better it will be :-)

The interview which we gave on This Week in Libraries will be shown shortly in this blog. It will also include a great question that we got from our collegues in Australia. More on this very shortly.

Finally, we want to give a big THANK YOU to our charming hosts today, Erik and Jaap.

Tomorrow: Follow a library crew live on the programme TWIL

2010-08-05T04:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning Ad and I (Wilma) are expected to be at the Public Library in Amsterdam at 10 am CET. Why? Because we are the guests on the popular Dutch Library Programme, called: This Week in Libraries. The hosts and creators of the show are Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer (from the DOK Library and well known from their Shanachies tours around the library world).

We will be talking to them on our favorite subject: social media and libraries and that also includes, ofcoure, our great followalibrary- project. We are also going to show our first followalibrary- teaser. In this short film you will get to see what the project is and who the people are behind the project.

You can follow the programma live from your own chair via the internet. To do this you will have to go to this website: http://www.thisweekinlibraries.com/?cat=5 You can also join the conversation there via the web. The spoken language is English. I think the show will start somewhere between 10 and 10.30 am CET and will take about an hour.

To get an idea of the show. Here is the interviews Erik and Jaap had with: Michael Stephens, David Lee King and Helene Blowers.

This Week in Libraries #4: Helene Blowers, Michael Stephens and David Lee King. from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

So until tomorrow?
:-)

Followalibrary presentation in Helsinki (video)

2010-06-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

In addition to our last blogpost, this is the video of the lightning talk Lukas gave in Helsinki at the ELAG Conference

Followalibrary - Koster from Jukka Pennanen on Vimeo.

Followalibrary presentation in Helsinki

2010-06-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

On June 10, 2010 Lukas presented the Followalibrary day initiative in a 5 minute lightning talk at the ELAG 2010 conference in Helsinki.

Followalibrary on Prezi

Follower number 100 on Twitter: the DOK Library

2010-05-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

Recently we welcomed follower number 100 on Twitter: the DOK Library in Delft (Netherlands). So we took our camera and visited them.

The followalibrary-button

2010-05-06T01:28:00.001-07:00

Lukas (@lukask) made a button for the #followalibrary-day

Want this button?
Just copy and paste this HTML
into your webpage:

Presentation (in Dutch) at UgameUlearn Conference 2010

2010-03-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

Follow a library on Twitter (in Dutch)

View more presentations from wbk500.

#followalibrary on google maps

2010-03-26T13:23:00.001-07:00

Put your library on this map!

How to put your twitter account on the #followalibrary map

Show this #followalibrary-map on a larger map

#followalibrary fountain

2010-03-26T02:47:00.001-07:00