Looking at Library Social Media During the Pandemic, Part 2
Last month, I looked at three libraries and their use of social media to stay connected with their communities during the pandemic. For this follow-up post, I got in touch with the librarian and staff members of Buchanan County Public Library to hear from them what their experiences have been like with virtual events and social media use over the last year.
Sherry Bright, the librarian at BCPL, tells me that before the pandemic forced the library to close, “Certain folks on staff were very reluctant to do author interviews or book discussions online. It’s like they felt like that the that it was a more rich experience to have people in person, and it was a stronger way to build community by having in person activities. And it’s not like we’re not going to go back to having in person activities; however, something that I’ve been pointing out consistently to everyone is that we’re actually reaching some people that weren’t coming to our in-person things.” With virtual events live-streamed on Facebook, “They can flip on their computer while they are cleaning up after dinner or doing laundry or whatever, then they can participate.”
“We were able to do some things with our patrons online that would have never been possible before the pandemic. There’s no way that we would have ever gotten several of the people that we have gotten,” Sherry tells me. Here she is talking about how library programming going virtual has actually made it easier to book authors for talks compared to the past. BCPL is located in Grundy, a small town in the southwest corner of Virginia, about four and a half hours from the closest major airport. “There’s quite a few of these folks that, basically, they will never come to this library. Because they’re not going to fly from California and we can’t pay them,” Sherry says. In-person speaker fees for some authors can be as much as $3,000 plus travel costs for one hour, money Sherry tells me could likely be better spent elsewhere in the budget.
Children’s librarian Teresa Matney has been responsible for attracting the bulk of the authors who have joined them for Facebook livestreams over the past year. She described the chain of connections she made with authors and publishers over time, saying, “Of course Charlaine Harris did it, which opened the door for a lot of our fantasy writers that we got because she knew them. And everybody knew who R. L. Stine was, so that opened the door for Lauren Tarshis, who wrote the I Survived series, and she’s also one of the editors at Scholastic, so she actually emailed authors and put in a good word for me.” Teresa also reiterates that it has been easier to book authors for virtual events. “A lot of these authors that we never had a chance ever to come here will do virtual stuff. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Teresa tells me, “As far as keeping this up once we open the doors, I’m not sure. It takes an enormous amount of time.” Library staff member Brian Shortridge says, “We don’t want to do anything that’s going to discourage people from coming here. For the last several months, Teresa has used this as a platform to continue to be engaged with people, but we’re hoping that once we open that it will supplement our being open, but we’re going to be on the air doing live stuff less and less.”
Sherry for the most part disagrees. “One of the things that I don’t want us to lose…I don’t want us to lose the sense that we have been building opportunities and services for people who cannot physically come to the library. We’ve got a huge number of people that have applied for cards online, have been using our electronic resources, and are more aware of what’s out there that we offer than ever before, and I would like to see us build on that.” Speaking of new digital services the library has subscribed to, she says, “I don’t know if that’s going to continue. I hope it does. For one thing, there’s a greater understanding of the disadvantage you’re in if you don’t have access to the internet, so there’s more pressure and more support for increasing internet connectivity in Buchanan County.”
“It’s like we lose something here but we gain something here. It’s not that this one is so much better than this one or this one so much better than this one; you take the best out of everything and try to make that work for you.”
