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Madison Public Library (Wisconsin)

beckyrech's picture
Submitted by beckyrech on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 11:33pm

The Madison Public Library serves the city of Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital, along with the surrounding communities in Dane County.  In 2008 the Madison Public Library served 2.8 million users in the libraries and had 3 million page visits on their website.  They are a member of the South Central Library System which is made up of 51 other libraries that share an online catalog, daily van deliveries and reciprocal borrowing privileges.
The Madison Public Library participates in a variety online spaces beyond their website including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious and YouTube.  One of the branches, Sequoya, also has its own Twitter and Flickr account.  The website does not specify why this branch has separate accounts from the larger organization.

The Website

Madison Public Library's website consists of a simple functional design without a lot of bells and whistles.  A visitor can easily skim the home page and navigate to needed information and resources using drop down menus and links in the sidebar.  If the user can not find what they desire there is Google search box clearly marked and available for searching the website as well as the web.  Because it is clearly marked with the Google logo it is less likely to be confused with a quick search box for the online catalog.  Madison Public Library recognizes that some of its visitors may want larger print or a site in Spanish making it more accessible to wider audience.  They also used a color scheme that provides contrast between text and background so users with visual impairments will not miss out.

Madison Public Library highlights the social media sites it uses at the very bottom of the page using small graphics to represent each of the the sites.  If a user is unfamiliar with the these sites they may or may not realize what these are.  There is not a explanation of why these sites are significant or important.  They do not introduce these sites to users unfamiliar to them.  A better approach to highlighting these sites might be a link explaining the social media sites and their significance along with the graphics.  Madison Public Library also provides a variety of RSS feeds originating from their blogs, newsletters and press releases.  Along with the other social media graphics at the bottom of the page is a graphic that represents RSS feeds.  By clicking on this graphic the viewer is taken to a central page with all the available RSS feeds on it.  Here it also mentions following the Madison Public Library on the other social media sites mentioned above.  Madison Public Library's e-newsletters appear to have more significance because they are higher on the web page and have their own box in the sidebar.  The link takes the reader to a page that includes instructions on how to subscribe to the e-newsletters and short descriptions of each newsletter.  It also includes a link to the RSS feeds of the newsletters and instructions on how to subscribe to the feeds along with links to popular feed readers.  This type of information should also be included on the general RSS feed page.  The Madison Public Library's e-newsletters cover a variety of topics including new items from a particular type like graphic novels and anime; books for specific age groups; Chapter A Day and more.

The library hosts four blogs: Check It Out (library updates), MADreads (book reviews), TeenTopix (teen events and book reviews), and MPL Gov Info (new government publications).  Readers can subscribe to these using RSS feeds or visit their respective pages.  Both MADreads and Check It Out are updated regularly.

Social Media Sites
Madison Public Library uses Facebook to communicate upcoming events, changes in the library's regular hours, the library in the news, helpful/interesting links and more.  It appears that they regularly update The Wall using the website or Hoot Suite.  By updating regularly they will regularly appear in fans' News Feeds and reminding them of their local library.  They currently have 643 fans, but only one has posted on their wall directly with far more commenting on posts from the library.  Madison Public Library uses tabs for Info, Extended Info, Photos, Events, Boxes and Discussions.  They have taken their website and consolidated it on Facebook allowing for quick reference to Facebook users as well as a gateway to their more robust and detailed website.  They have a few photos posted, but many more are on their Flickr page.  It appears that they post a photo from an event along with a link to more photos on their Flickr page.  It is curious that they do not link their Facebook account directly to their Flickr account so that links automatically appear on The Wall when they are uploaded to Flickr.  Also, missing are direct links to their blogs and/or RSS feeds.
Madison Public Library uses Twitter in a similar manner to The Wall of their Facebook page only in the more concise manner that is required by the 140 character limit of Twitter.  Madison Public Library regularly tweets notifying followers of upcoming events, interesting links, new books out and more.  The library has 257 followers, but only follows 41 which are primarily other libraries and organizations not individuals.
Flickr, Delicious and YouTube are used less often and updated less frequently with Flickr being the most recently updated of the three.  Flickr also appears to primarily chronicle the events of the Youth Services department.  Delicious has not had new links posted since September 2009.  They have five videos posted on YouTube including database how to videos and promotional pieces.  Madison Public Library effectively uses YouTube to promote  a couple of their databases.  The best part is they are short and use screen shots to illustrate as the narrator describes the database and its features.  Flickr, Delicious and YouTube could be integrated into Madison Public Library's website and Facebook page to create more diverse content.

Branding

Madison Public Library brings together its online presence to create a fairly consistent brand.  Where it falls short is the additional Twitter and Flickr pages of the Sequoya branch.   It is the only one of the nine branches to separate itself from the larger organization.  The tweets appear to be more casual then those from the larger organization creating inconsistency in Madison Public Library's brand.

Suggestions
As Madison Public Library's social media consultant I would first want to make sure they have specific goals laid out for the participation in each of the social media sites.  Especially pertaining to whether or not the branches should have their own online identity and specific departments like youth services.  In my opinion it would be appropriate to have a specific Facebook site directed at teens, showcasing appropriate content for them.

I would suggest more information on the website about what social media sites and RSS feeds are.  Allowing non-users to learn what these are and potentially encourage them to explore the technologies on their own.  I would also suggest technology classes related to social media especially for adults, the non-digital natives.
I would also like to see more integration between Facebook and the website.  For example, automatic posts to The Wall when the blogs are updated on the website.

I like the idea of teen

sbrew's picture
Submitted by sbrew on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:06pm.

I like the idea of teen specific pages on Facebook and automatic posts to the Wall when the blogs are updated. In order to keep the information current and relevant to their users it is important to coordinate updates to Facebook that coincide with the information on the library's blog or website. I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be to add an RSS feed to the Facebook page that updates articles from the blog automatically. After a little research it looks like this option used to be available through an application called Atom, but in May 2009 Facebook discontinued the application because of Privacy issues. Here is the article on ReadWriteWeb.

There are ways to import blog

PJ Bentley's picture
Submitted by PJ Bentley on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:02pm.

There are ways to import blog posts or other feeds to a page's wall with the Notes app and others, but a library has to be careful about creating redundancies. I've seen some library pages that are literally just a stream of posts from their blogs and event calendars, which is more likely to lose fans than keep them. I think the best thing for a library to do is to occasionally link to its blog posts when they are particularly interesting or relevant, which lets people know the blog exists but doesn't overdo i; if someone has chosen not to follow the blog but to follow the library on Facebook, it shouldn't be forcing that content on them.

I like your idea of adding

sarahkishler's picture
Submitted by sarahkishler on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 8:16pm.

I like your idea of adding explanatory content about the library's social media tools to the library's page. Some of these icons have become so familiar to me that when doing my own critique, I did not think about users who would not recognize these icons. If there is an icon I don't recognize, I roll over it with my mouse to see what URL it leads to, but not all users are going to know they can do this. We shouldn't assume all users have the same level of social media literacy.

I also liked what you said

LisaMolinelli's picture
Submitted by LisaMolinelli on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 5:30pm.

I also liked what you said about having more social media education on the website and in the library via more explanation of social media icons and classes for non-digital natives. I also did not really think of that in my own critique as I, too, am so used to the icons. It's a good reminder that not everyone knows what these things are, nor do they always know how to find out. I also liked what you said in your suggestions about how the MPL should has their specific goals for participation in each social media site laid out. I think having those goals would make any library's social media efforts more focused and effective. Great ideas!

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