The Virtual Community Project Helping people take advantage of the resources at their library Hello, I’m Ashley Burdick, and I work at Palos Verdes Library District. My Eureka! project was “The Virtual Community Project,” working primarily with Facebook and our “social” OPAC. Ashley Burdick Palos Verdes Library District

What do people want? Before starting this project, I thought about what people in our community might want from their library online. The reason why I decided to focus my attention online is that Palos Verdes is primarily a “bedroom community,” which means that most working age people are not physically able to come to the library. Also, we’d like to better-reach teens, and Facebook seemed like perfect medium for this.

Community Awareness Survey I went back to the “Community Awareness Survey” that PVLD conducted in 2009. In this survey, people asked for materials, services, and programs that the library has offered for a long time. Also, the community identified “reading” as the library’s main focus. And so, PVLD adopted the tagline, “Enriching Lives Through Reading.” I decided I should keep these considerations in mind as I planned my project. Enriching Lives Through Reading

My own survey 75% of people use Facebook 12% of people “like” PVLD I wanted to investigate if Facebook really would be a perfect medium, and as it turns out, there was potential for real growth in this area.

The most important qualities for these online tools are: Useful Up-to-date Unique to this library and community About social media, the people surveyed said that they wanted it to be useful, up-to-date, and unique to this library and community. And this, of course, is brought to you by the letter “U” 

Getting staff on board My next step was to get staff on board, which means I had coffee a lot with different staff people  I also had a brainstorming session that was open to all-staff.

Finding the right volunteers Next, I needed to find the right volunteers to work on the project and enlisted the help of our volunteer coordinator. I wanted volunteers who were social media-savvy, creative, and self-motivated.

Creating a committee And, I was so happy to get what I asked for! Here I am with skatepark activist and artist Ellen November and high school wunderkind Jasmyne Lott. We met weekly throughout the project.

Consult with an expert I also remotely got advice from social media consultant Trevor Eyster, who had already devised very successful social media plans for several non-profits.

Now, get busy! A lot of stuff happened next. There were regular Facebook posts by staff and my volunteers. We developed a publicity campaign. There were special photo features posted on Facebook. We made displays. We created a game, complete with two raffle prizes for adults and teens.

“How would your life be different if there were no library?” For one of the features on Facebook, we asked people, “How would your life be different if there were no library?” My favorite response was “Awful! The library is a place I go to get myself together. It is where I make new discoveries.” We posted these on Facebook with the title, “True Confessions of a PVLD Patron.”

Meanwhile, statistics rose Meanwhile, statistics rose. We saw a real relationship between the effort we put into Facebook and the number of “likes,” views, and interactions. Facebook made it easy to track these.

Library Application for Facebook A virtual branch! It was really interesting for me to help plan all the programming for the PVLD Facebook application. We discussed possible features and reviewed wireframe designs. My “Eureka!” moment was realizing that it would become a “virtual branch” expressly for our target groups.

Ta-da! Though the PVLD Facebook app is still in beta, we’ve held demonstrations. The receptions have been positive. People should be able to do all their library business without leaving Facebook. More demonstrations are planned for future.

Make this innovation available to libraries everywhere Up next: We’d like to make the library Facebook application available for libraries everywhere. We plan to make it available under an open licensing scheme.

Measuring Success I’ve come to the realization that there is no “finish line” as far as this project goes. The Virtual Community Project is longer-running than the grant period. However, our Facebook “likes” increased from 537 to 1,392.

Ashley Burdick aburdick@pvld.org Thank you! Ashley Burdick aburdick@pvld.org I’d like to thank the California State Library, the Peninsula Friends of the Library, and Palos Verdes Library District. I’d also like to thank the Eureka! Mentors and Fellows. Thank you!