This presentation looks at how we use Social Media at RCSI Library.

1. Social Media at RCSI Library
Colm O’Connor, RCSI Library
RCSI Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Coláiste Ríoga na Máinleá in
Éirinn

2. • Introduction to Social Media
• RCSI Library on YouTube
• How we create videos for YouTube
• RCSI Library on Facebook
• RCSI Library blog
• RCSI Heritage blog

3. • Websites and applications that enable users to
create and share content or to participate in social
networking.
• Traditional media was a one way street, social
media is two way; users have ability to generate their
own content and communicate their thoughts and
ideas.
• Examples are Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter,
LinkedIn etc.

4. • Follow the students; Social Media is how many find information. We go
to students; they don’t have to come to us.
• Two way communication with students; unlike a website social media
allows feedback through comments, ‘likes’ etc. Useful in building good
relationships with users.
• A tool to promote services and highlight resources.

5. • A video sharing website; allows anyone to upload and
view videos
• Users can comment on and ‘like’ videos. You can also
‘subscribe’ to users that are of interest to you.
• Second most popular social media platform in
Ireland with 640,000 users (GlobalWebIndex, 2013)

6. www.youtube.com/rcsilibrary

7. • Showing instructional videos on how to use the
catalogue and our electronic resources
• Currently we have 8 videos

16. • From the library website
www.rcsi.ie/library

17. • Using the search box
at www.youtube.com

18. • By going directly to
www.youtube.com/rcsilibrary

24. • Staff members consult
• Draw up a ‘script’ - Usually several drafts!
• Needs to be concise but include all necessary information –
need to strike a balance
• Ensure language used isn’t too technical

25. • First take a recordings of the screen, e.g. Accessing CINAHL,
Accessing library website
•Record piece by piece, rather than one big chunk
• At the end of this process, you will have a number of separate
videos in Camtasia

26. •Edit the videos; add text, zoom effects, highlighting, arrows etc.
(very time consuming!)
•More editing, tidy up the videos so transitions between different
scenes are seamless, fix the timing (how long you want to display
text for etc.), ensure text is legible

29. • Create slides in PowerPoint

31. • Record each PowerPoint slide as a video
•Edit these videos (timing etc)
•You will now have two sets of videos ; the PowerPoint videos and
the ones you created earlier (accessing website, accessing
CINAHL etc.)
• Our Cinahl video is made up of 27 separate videos.
• In Camtasia , put these videos together in the desired order.
•Add music (Camtasia has a small number of tracks you can use
copyright free)

33. • Voice or text?
• We decided on text
• Eliminates the problem of accents
• Easier to follow for viewers (pause and read)
• Easier to create and edit
• Looks more professional

34. • Videos should be short : ideally 2-4
minutes

35. Websites change!
This means our videos must too

37. • An online social networking service
• People or businesses create personal profiles with information
about themselves and connect to other profiles by ‘friending’ or
‘liking’ them
• Each time one of your connections posts something new, you
will be notified on your profile
• Most popular social media platform in Ireland, with 1.2 million
users (GlobalWebIndex, 2013)

38. • Keeping students up to date with Library announcements, opening hours,
new resources etc.
• Allows us to communicate more informally than we can on our website,
blog etc.
• Gives us an opportunity to show content that we couldn’t display
elsewhere; old pictures of the library etc.
• 2-3 posts per week

39. •751 ‘Likes’ or followers.
•Mostly undergraduate students

47. • Short for ‘Web log’, a blog is basically an online journal ;
generally accessible to the public.
• At RCSI Library we have two blogs; the Library blog and the
Heritage Collections blog.

48. http://rcsilibrary.blogspot.ie/

49. • Keeping students and other library users up to date
with Library announcements, opening hours,
new resources etc.
• Post more ‘serious’ or academic items on the blog

52. http://rcsiheritage.blogspot.ie/

53. • Raising awareness of the research value of the collections
in the Heritage Collections
• Making announcements about opening hours, new material
available online etc
• It has the potential to reach a wider and more diverse user
base

58. www.rcsi.ie/library