McBee Elementary is a small school located in South Carolina that is home to around 350 students in grades 4K-5. Students are engaged in reading across all content areas. As I was determining what social media platform would be best to use to promote literacy from the perspective of the school library, one platform felt most appropriate. "This is the best way to capture the variety of literacies occurring in the library"(2017), states Jan Wilson in regards to taking and posting pictures. With this in mind, Instagram felt like the right fit. It's so easy to snap a few photos of books or students reading to keep parents and students updated on what the library has to offer and what students are doing in library. With that being said, I created the McBee Elementary Library Instagram page: mcbeeelmreads.
This page was very easy to create. I was able to use my personal information that I use for my personal account to create this account. I chose to do this since I will be the person running the page. The profile image includes the school logo"Learners today. Leaders tomorrow." I chose this image because it is the same image as the school Facebook page. With permission from administration, I plan to link this Instagram page to the school Facebook page. This will allow parents who are on Facebook but not Instagram to view the posts as well.
Each month, I plan to post weekly reads that coordinate with the displays in the library. This month, I have Halloween reads displayed. We are also discussing genre, and the "genre of the month" is science fiction. A post will come soon with science fiction picks for this month. I also will post images of students reading and participating in activities within the library. This page is also going to be a great way to promote events such as the book fair. Posts will include a short blurb to explain the image. This will be a great way to get information to parents from the perspective of the library.
Like Twitter and Facebook, Instagram users are able to use "hashtags" to search for other posts using the same hashtag. This year, our school literacy coach and myself have been brainstorming ways to promote literacy even more with our students in and out of school. We began discussing using a hashtag for parents to post images of their children reading on social media platforms that would correlate with the school. Choosing #mesreads, as included in the page biography, will connect this promotion of literacy. "Hashtags, especially those that are widely used in your community, are another great way to gain exposure and followers"(Wella, 2016).
Finally, privacy settings. Being this is an account that includes images of elementary age children, it is a private account that requires the approval of the site administrator to view and follow the page. As the librarian, I interact with all of the students in the school. I know each of them and many of the upper grade children have instagram pages. My plan would be to have any students who have instagram to share their usernames with me. This would allow me to approve their follow request and know it is them. This page will have information not only for parents, but for students as well so it is important that those with Instagram accounts have access to the page.
References:
Wetta, M. (2016). Instagram now: Engage young users with the image based social media tool. School Library Journal, 62(2), p. 30-32.
Wilson, J. (2017). Make your library more visible. School Library Journal, 62(12), p. 16.
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