ARLIS/NA 46th Annual Conference

A great deal of research has been conducted on the effects of digital culture and social media in museums and in libraries in general, but little has been done to evaluate the social media landscape specifically in art libraries. This session of lightning talks aims to fill that void by examining the application, impact and perception of social media in the art library community.  

Today, social media is embedded in countless aspects of our personal and professional lives, and is instrumental in the way we communicate with and view the world. As art librarians, how do we evaluate the results of our efforts? How can we develop policies, guidelines and strategic goals that ensure a productive use of these tools? And what are the best practices for increasing awareness of our collections? Speakers include a museum librarian, an academic librarian, a special collections librarian and an art and design college librarian who offer a variety of perspectives on social media in art library environments. Additionally, we will hear presentations on the results of surveys: one assessing the overall impact of social media in art libraries, the other-conducted by a content producer for an arts research institution-examining the social media habits of art historians.

Presentations:
Chantal Sulkow, “Is Anybody Out There? Measuring the Impact of Social Media Engagement in Art Library Environments”
William Blueher, “A Blog is not a Tweet is not a Gram is not a Pin: Creating Platform-Specific Social Media Policies”
Anna Simon, “How Much is 140 Characters Worth? How to Assess Your Library’s Social Media Efforts”
Jennifer Ferretti, “Our PR Problem Is Real: Social Media in the Context of Labor and Strategic Planning”
Betsy Brand, “How Art Historians Use Social Media (. . . and How They Don't)”
Viveca Pattison Robichaud, “#rarebookfriday: Systematizing an Approach to Social Media to Reach a Targeted Audience”