1. From leisurely posts to urgent tweets
October 2013:
Bushfires in many regions of NSW incl. the Blue Mountains
Situation
Intense (few concentrated day from 16 Oct to 27 Oct)
fast and dangerous (over 200 houses destroyed in the space of few hours)
Fires at the top and bottom of the Mountains (threatening access)
History of the 2009 Victorian fires weighing on people’s mind
Access to information became crucial
Essential info was broadcast via SM:
Emergency services
Media outlets
Government departments
The BM Library joined in using its existing SM platforms
Each social media account help spread messages and increased their reach.
This created a vibrant and intense online community, unified in its focus.
Situation impacted on every aspects of everyone’s daily lives
It also impacted on our use of Social Media
From casual posts / library services and resources to urgently broadcasting safety information
Intensity shone a light on features of Social Media tools and questions emerged.
What can we learn from using
social media in an emergency?
Patou Clerc – Blue Mountains City Library

2. Photo credit: David Rawsthorne

3. Photo credit: David Rawsthorne

4. Photo credit: David Rawsthorne

5. Photo credit: David Rawsthorne

6. Photo credit: David Rawsthorne

7. Photo credit: The Australian

8. Photo credit: The Australian

9. Photo credit: The Australian

10. Photo credit: The Australian

11. Photo credit: news.com

12. Photo credit: Herald Sun

13. Photo credit: Daily Telegraph

14. Photo credit: SMH

15. Photo credit: SMH

16. Photo credit: Blue Mountains Library

17. Photo credit: Blue Mountains Library

19. Questions raised Social media can be a source of useful information
So, how is it organised?
And how can we retrieve it?
Online community engagement intensified
How can we build on this?
Stories are created on Social Media
How can we keep these stories and make them accessible?
The nature of social media (fast, potential to reach many, location independent) makes it useful in emergency communications.
The importance of SM in providing access to essential information in disasters has been demonstrated (for example the January 2011 floods in Queensland and the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand).
Emergency communication specialists worldwide have been and are evaluating the tools and devising best practice guidelines.
Drawing on our experience using social media in an emergency and those of others, this presentation and associated paper investigate the questions raised.

20. Social Media @ Blue Mountains Library
Blogs
Flickr
Facebook & Twitter
Pinterest & Tumblr
Book Crossing & Good Reads
Podcast & Video channels
There is an access point to these on our website.
During the bushfires, we mainly used Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and I will concentrate of these particular platforms.
Facebook and Twitter:
eNoticeboard: promotion of library services and programmes
Sharing others content
Focus on FB
Accounts linked
Flickr:
Local Studies images
Gather info about these images
Conversation encouraged on all platforms, but more visible on Flickr
The components of the information cycle were in essence the same as usual. Information was created and posted. Information was gathered, evaluated and shared. The timing of the information cycle was however considerably faster.
Twitter proved to be particularly useful in gathering information in a timely relevant manner. One particular insight from using Twitter in this emergency was that there IS useful, practical, and in a crisis situation, even potentially live-saving information on Twitter.
bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au

21. Twitter proved to be particularly useful in gathering relevant information in a timely manner.

22. twitter.com/search-home
#‎nswrfs; #‎nswfires; ‪#‎nswfire; #‎BlueMountains; ‪ #‎Lithgow; ‪#‎Springwood; ‪#‎Winmalee; ‪#‎firefighters
#nswfires
It is not necessary to have an account to search Twitter
URL for search without an account
Within few days of the NSW October 2013 bushfires starting, ‪the hashtags listed on this slide predominated.
#nswfires prevailed and was used by many to link conversations about bushfires and the RFS response.
Typing #nswfires in a Twitter search gave access to all conversations using this hashtag.
Wide range of information
Some interpreted and shared immediately - Some kept aside for later use – some ignored
Messages of support, offers of help appeared and were selectively re-broadcast.
The community quickly bonded under this hashtag:
businesses, organisations, individuals
Listening to the #nswfires conversation stream gave an indication of the impact of the situation on the community and beyond.
More specific listening by accessing the NSW RFS messages directly on their page.

23. #mythbuster
The validity of the information available on Social Media can be questioned.
Rumours may spread like wild fires, but so will disclaimers.
The Queensland Police Service - Media Unit successfully quashed misreporting and rumours by using the hashtag #Mythbuster.
This information was then retweeted and its reach amplified.

24. #hashtags Hashtag – noun Link conversations Searchable
A word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media sites such as Twitter to identify messages on a specific topic
Oxford Dictionaries Online
Link conversations
Searchable
Function as subject headings
Organic
Official hashtags
Hashtags started as a way to link conversations on Twitter
Now also used on Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook.
Hashtags function as subject headings:
facilitate information retrieval
link related records.
Unlike subject headings:
not standardised, grow organically.
However, there are also conventions and “official” hashtags.
Conversations, content and updates with hashtags become more visible to others.
Hashtags can be used:
to research particular topics
to facilitate and contribute to discussions
to promote events
to join communities
to distribute breaking news or emergency information.
They can be a powerful tool and their use is worth considering in social media strategies.

25. Advanced Search Search by Searches words hashtags people places dates
moods
Searches
are fluid
can be saved
Another feature worth investigating to gather information is the Twitter advanced search.
The Twitter “discover” support page provide useful tips and information on how to get the most out of a Twitter search.

26. During the fires, engagement on the library social media account grew.
What can we learn from this?

27. Engagement on FB
These curves are from Facebook Insights and indicate a sharp increase in engagement during the bushfires.

28. A community space
2011 Christchurch earthquake
Individuals and organisations turned to Twitter and Facebook in masse.
Social media also played an important role in cultivating connectedness.
With many community halls and churches destroyed, the community turned to social media for support and it is argued that social media fulfilled the role of churches.
“With traditional sources of comfort like Christchurch Cathedral left damaged in the quakes, people turned to social media for support, says an expert. Photo / Doug Sherring”

29. facebook groups BM bushfires Oct 2013
Community turned to Facebook to connect with others locally and beyond.
Facebook groups were created:
coordinating offers of help
contributing to sense of shared experience.
The library promoted relevant groups to its followers.
During the 2011 Queensland floods, a number of community led pages were also created.
One page in particular “Cyclone Yasi Update” was widely used and the subject of a study.
The study found that:
SM can assist in the delivery of psychological first aid
It can support community resilience by delivering relevant and timely information and providing a forum.
people turned to the Facebook group for information (seeking and giving) and to engage with others
The interaction made people feel connected, useful and supported.
Public Libraries could consider meeting their community online, via Facebook group and other forums.

30. Public Libraries have been proactive with Social Media.
If I assume that our experience is that of others, I would describe as this:
Getting it off the ground was hard.
Now that it is going, we have a team of interested people contributing.
The process is organic, and this suits the social media environment fine
Now is the time to move from an ad hoc approach to a strategic one,
while retaining the spontaneous and creative nature of the process.
The following is inspired by an OECD working paper on “the use of social media in risk and crisis communication”, published in 2013.
The authors of the paper have created some checklists to help emergency services with a strategic approach to their social media. These have been adapted to suit a library setting.

31. Dynamic social media strategy
Three communication components
Listen
Inform
Interact
The resulting checklists are broken down under 3 communication components

32. Do you follow specific hashtags?
Listen
Monitor conversations
Identify concerns
Situational awareness
Do you follow specific hashtags?
Do you have a list of blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts of local people and organisations who could help you gather information from the communities?
Listen is about information gathering, sifting and evaluating.
Establishing a regular listening practice will have many benefits in terms of identifying the issues our communities are concerned with.
For example: searches can be set on Twitter, following particular hashtags (#) or people
There are a number of social media monitoring online tools available: it may be worth investigating their use in order to streamline the listening process.
Does your organisation have the necessary human skills to use social media to conduct situational awareness?
Do you regularly monitor social media for situational awareness (knowing what is going on around you)?

33. Inform Providing relevant content Increasing broadcast reach
Does your library have a team dedicated to your social media communication?
Do you have a strategy so that your social media network can grow?
Does your library have guidelines on the use of social media for the social media team? For the rest of the team?
created or curated content posted on social media platforms
extending our broadcasting reach.
This checklist may prompt ideas about how we approach the content we post. It may help us provide content that is relevant to the lives of our listeners.
Coordination between content creators
regular discussion about how to better reach the various sections of our audience would enhance our effectiveness.
While we create a large amount of the information we post, we also gather much from the web. Content curation is the process of sifting, evaluating, interpreting and publishing web content.
There are a number of content curation online tools that may be well worth investigating and incorporating in our day-to-day social media procedures.
Which are your objectives in terms of growth in scope (Increase the age/ ethnicity/ gender/ geographical range of Facebook fans, twitter followers, etc.)?

34. Interact Participation in conversations Facilitation of exchanges
Do you retweet your followers?
Do you have a forum where you can exchange in real time with the community?
Can your library receive and react to public input via social media?
fostering community connectedness
participating and facilitating conversations on social networks.
This checklist may prompt us to think of ways to improve our interactions with our online communities.
For example,
it may be worth investigating how we could connect with Facebook groups in our area. There will be some groups we will have a natural synergy with and that will be happy to collaborate with us (home schooling groups, for example).
Conclusion to the section
There will be fluidity in the way the three processes interrelate and continuous assessment will be necessary.
The library social media team would benefit from regular meetings evaluating the listening, informing and interacting approaches and their interaction.
Do you have partnerships for sharing methods of two ways communication (with private sectors, etc.)?

35. Fluid nature of social media poses problems when wanting to apply a static archival quality to it.
How can we keep relevant stories created on social media?

36. Keeping stories There is a history of bushfire in the BM
While still in recovery mode, 2013 now part of our local history
During the fires, a library initiated Flickr group was created
An opportunity to collect and document collaboratively
The group currently has 28 members and 218 photos.
Local Studies departments keep locally relevant records and present them in the form of stories. Online, blogs and photo-sharing sites have been used.
But what of the content created on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Social media produces plenty of records and when these are significant to the locality (such as bushfires), the task of organising them into stories can be daunting and time-consuming.
Social media systems will not keep our data forever.

37. Keeping records Situation unclear at this stage
There doesn’t seem to be a unified approach on how to deal with social media archiving at present.
Online tools such as Storify may help.
They have been used by libraries and media outlets to curate stories created on social media.
The ABC is active on Storify. One of their stories is about the October 2013 NSW bushfires.
The Blue Mountains City Library is currently experimenting with this tool.
However, its sustainability for archival purpose is uncertain.
NSW State Records has this year published a document called “Strategies for managing social media information”.
This worth investigating.
In a study about the use of SM in the 2011 QLD floods, there is some prompting for the National Library of Australia “to assume leadership in developing processes for the long-term archival of social media data of national significance to take leadership”.
Situation unclear at this stage
Online tools such as Storify
A national/state approach

38. Conclusion
Social media is the interaction of information and social connection.
As such, it links up nicely with the brief of public libraries to inform and connect.
Libraries are in a unique position in their community, at the intersection of
Government
Information
Community
The public trusts librarians: they give a variety of sources and perspectives.
PL to use SM not only to inform audiences of library activities and services,
It can offer another place to harvest, disseminate and archive locally significant information.
It offers a forum for interaction and conversations
In order to get the most out of the social media tools they are using, public libraries need to take a dynamic and strategic approach to their online communication.
Having a sound knowledge of the tools used,
understanding how the communities they serve engage online,
owning their voice
Contributing to online conversations
will take public libraries to another level of community engagement.