Lattes & Lit

 After reading through the case studies list for this week's unit, I decided to search for more information about these incidents.  I found a helpful article on Rstreet.org written by Spence Purnell entitled, "Misinformation and Platform Moderation". It was a very timely article - published on October 15, 2025. The author acknowledges that content moderation is one of the main tools social media platforms have to combat misinformation.  And yet, the reality is that due to the extreme amount of content that is part of social media, problems emerge. One problem is that there is no formally accepted definition for the term misinformation due to the fact that people consider what is misinformation based on their individual views when discussing contentious topics. Another problem is about how humans are not able to review every post manually due to what sometimes seems like endless content. And, even with the help of automated systems, not all moderating decisions will be goo...

Which social media platforms are most effective for reaching and engaging adult library users? Libraries have a lot of different audiences to cater to, but one group that tends to get overlooked in social media strategies is adults. While programs for kids and teens often grab the spotlight online, adult services like book clubs, author talks, and tech workshops can really benefit from some thoughtful promotion too. It’s all about using the right platforms to reach the right people. For many libraries, Facebook is still a go-to for engaging with adults. It’s widely used for local news and events, so libraries can really take advantage of event pages, photo albums, and community posts to keep folks informed. Plus, Facebook groups can create niche communities—think "Mystery Readers Book Club" or updates for a "Makerspace Workshop." Instagram has its perks, especially for adults in their 20s to 40s. Its visual nature is perfect for promoting displays, sharing book rec...

  When we think about social media analytics, most of us picture dashboards full of likes, shares, and retweets. But for researchers, social media is more than just popularity points, it’s actually a goldmine for understanding how ideas spread, and communities form online. This week’s unit is all about that shift: using analytics not just to boost engagement, but to really dig into human behavior and social interaction. The article “Towards a Second Generation of Social Media Metrics” by Díaz-Faes, Bowman, and Costas (2019) does a great job of showing this. The authors point out that just counting how many times a scientific paper gets tweeted only tells part of the story. What’s even more interesting is who is sharing it and how they interact on social media. By looking at over a million Twitter users, they found patterns like super-focused science sharers, casual users who mix science with personal posts, and professional networks that help amplify certain topics. This “secon...

I thought the article "Going Viral: How a Single Tweet Spawned a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory on Twitter" Gruzd, A., & Mai, P. (2020) was a well-written and very interesting read for this week.  Actually, I found it to be so interesting that I googled "#FilmYourHospital" and read several news articles about that former social media hashtag misinformation campaign.   One article, which was on the AP news website, had a commentary that helped to explain the wildfire effect of that pandemic related hashtag.  The commentator was an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, Alex Friedfeld.  His explanation made me realize that it wasn't just the COVID-19 virus that was mutating and quickly spreading during the pandemic in an unprecedented way.  Conspiracy Theories were also mutating and quickly spreading as people had more free time to spend on the Internet while they stayed home in quarantine conditions.   Now, h...

 One issue that has always interested me in media in general is the issue and balance between Freedom of Speech and Copyright Law and the loophole that Fair Use allows. For those that don't know what fair use is, it is the part of copyright that allows you to use a copyrighted work without permission for certain reasons such as criticism, commentary, parody, teaching, news reporting, and scholarship. If you would like to learn more about copyright and fair use, I took a Media Law and Ethics class and my professor showed this silly video on YouTube called A Fair(y) Use Tale which made me laugh but also explains it really well (fair warning, this video is kind of old so the quality isn't great, but you will get the point). I thought it was really telling that they used clips from Disney movies to get their point across, since it was Disney that led the charge to lengthen the terms of copyright law several times so they wouldn't lose ownership of many of their intellectual pr...

  Picture this: it’s 2 a.m., you’re deep in a doomscroll of climate issues, foreign wars, conspiracy theories, and the intermittent AI ASMR video that always appears, and somehow, this counts as research. Welcome, one and all, to the world of social media analytics, where every post, tweet, and hashtag becomes data. This data tells stories about how you connect, learn, and sometimes…completely lose the plot. This week we broke down the big picture of social media research, that being how platforms give us mountains of user-generated data that can reveal real-world patterns. But, those patterns are only part of the story. Wang and Ye (2018) ’s article describes how social media helped disaster managers visualize floods, fires, and community distress in real time. Tweets acted like digital distress flares, mapping where people needed help, which areas were most impacted, and how communities were responding. With geotags, keywords, and timestamps, emergency responders could track ...

Let’s be honest—when your library’s Facebook post gets five likes (and three out of five likes are from you and your coworkers), do you feel personally attacked? We all love a viral moment, but as Dr. Sun reminded us this week, numbers don’t mean much without context. Welcome one and all to the surprisingly unglamourous world of social media metrics! Here, the difference between success and static depends on what you’re actually measuring. This week, Dr. Sun’s lecture introduced to the DATA model—Define, Assess, Track, and Adjust—which basically asks us to stop counting likes for the sake of likes. Before the bragging about “engagement” starts, we have to Define our goals (are we trying to increase attendance? Build awareness? Inspire action?), Assess whether its worth the effort, Track the data that actually matters, and Adjust based on what we find. Sounds simple enough, until you realize engagement is one of those fuzzy words that can range in meaning from clicking a link to ...

How can libraries use social media creatively while staying within the boundaries of professional and ethical policy? Social media gives libraries an incredible opportunity to connect with their communities, share resources, and highlight their values. But with that opportunity comes responsibility. Every post a library makes—whether it’s a playful video, a serious announcement, or a reply to a patron—reflects the institution. That is why clear, well-structured social media policies are essential for guiding staff behavior, maintaining consistency, and protecting both the library and its users. A good policy does more than list rules. It helps staff understand their roles as representatives of the library. It should define who can post on official accounts, outline how to handle comments or complaints, and set expectations for tone, privacy, and accessibility. Policies also need to cover personal use—how employees engage online as individuals while still upholding professional stand...

 While looking over this week's activities and readings, I had a hard time connecting this to actionable items and takeaway learnings that I could see making a difference in my future career working in a public library. While businesses with tangible products are at the forefront of this week's focus, especially in the readings in my opinion, libraries don't really have "products" that they actively sell. While thinking about this, I have to bring it back to the purpose and mission of many public libraries that I have seen. Most mention being informative and creating community - both of these things you can do on social media, regardless of what analytics might tell you about the "product" you are "selling." My point is,  I am not sure what kind of data that analytics would actually provide that would change the actions of a public library posting on social media. They are still going to post about their events to get the word out and hope that...

My favorite quote from one of this week's reading selections ( Social media analytics and business   intelligence research: A systematic review ) reflects the power of having active conversations with consumers. "…social media data reflects customer-driven information without any censorship." J.Choi et al., p.13. As consumer voices on social media continue to steadily grow each fiscal quarter, the days of just needing to know the number of followers an account has in order to gauge the social media health of the business are a very distant memory. Also becoming a distant memory are the impersonal tones of corporate press releases traditionally put in conventional media outlets by public relations managers. Those types of press releases do not work in this era of social media and marketing. They are too controlling of the narrative and do not allow for feedback from the consumers. Consumers want to give feedback (aka engagement) and have a conversation whether it be i...

  We all know that one coworker who enjoys posting a bit too freely on the library’s Facebook page (we love your enthusiasm, Janet, but maybe the “funny” meme about overdue fines wasn’t the move). This week’s lecture on social media policy and governance reminded me that every good post needs a good policy behind it. One that protects reputation, privacy, and sanity. A policy should not be seen as red tape, but instead  a seatbelt for the library’s digital presence. As ALA has pointed out, once a library opens its social media to public comments, it is entering First Amendment territory. This means libraries can’t just delete controversial opinions because they make someone uncomfortable. Instead, they need clear, transparent guidelines that set expectations while protecting free speech. Here comes the modern twist: data-driven governance. According to Developing Effective Social Media Policies for Libraries (2020), library policy analysts now use analytics to shape and refin...

What role should libraries play on social media when it comes to the rise in book challenges and bans? "The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack." Across the country, libraries have faced increasing pressure to remove or restrict books dealing with race, gender identity, and sexuality. These challenges often spark heated debates—not just in local meetings, but online. Social media has become one of the primary arenas where these conversations unfold. For libraries, the question is no longer whether to engage, but how to engage responsibly. As institutions dedicated to intellectual freedom, libraries have both the right and responsibility to advocate for open access to information. Social media provides a platform to communicate that mission clearly. Posts that highlight the Freedom to Read Statement or share resources from the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom can educate the public and show transpa...

 One of the aspects of the readings that stood out to me this week was the list of four common challenges that libraries face and should address while creating their social media policy. 1. The first challenge is balancing Freedom of Expression with Control.  While you want the audience and community to be engaged with your library on social media because more engagement means that more people see your posts, negative engagement is not always a good thing. Whether it is a parent who is unhappy with the book that a librarian allowed their child to check out, or someone unhappy with another patron at the library or in the comments, or whether they direct their anger at the unavailability of space for a certain popular program, or whatever it may be. It is hard to know what the right answer is when it comes to responding to these people. Deleting their comment is not an option unless it contains profanity or discrimination in some way. Freedom of expression is not freedom to hurt...

  When I saw the list of libraries who have published polices regarding user behavior for their social media accounts, I quickly tapped on the link for Brooklyn Public Library to see their policy.  (The list is contained in one of our required readings - "Staying Social: Why Your Library Needs Social Media Polices") I was impressed with the wording of their policy and started thinking about parts of it I would like to talk about with the director at the public library where I work. (Williamson Public Library, NY) Next on the reading list is the ALA's Social Media Guidelines for Public and Academic Libraries.  Less than one minute into this reading and I became very uncomfortable.  The ALA's well written and clarifying definition of "Designated public forum" had me sitting on the edge of my chair.  As I continued to read this article, my concerns grew.  Out the window went my belief that libraries can maintain control of what the public posts in the comment ...

Ever wonder how many people have quietly stalked your Goodreads “to-read” shelf or that one regrettable Myspace photo that somehow still lives on the internet? If you just said “no,” congratulations! You’re living the ethical dream. The rest of us? We’re living in what  Dr. Sun discussion culminates as the era of constant data tracking. This week we discussed social media ethics and privacy. Basically, all the messy questions about consent, data, and the blurry line between “public” and “private.” Researcher Michael Zimmer (2010) sings a perfect warning song with the “Tastes, Ties, and Time” Facebook study, where academics downloaded 1,700 students’ profiles because, well, the data was public. And the can. The problem? Those students didn’t actually consent to being part of a research project. Turns out, “public” doesn’t always mean “permission granted.” Then there’s danah boyd and Kate Crawford (2012), who remind us that Big Data isn’t automatically good data, no matter what ...

The high percentage of employers who use social networking sites to screen potential employees is not alarming in today's online culture.  In fact, it is very commonplace across a variety of professions and industries for employers to do this type of screening.  A 2023 Career Builder survey showed that 70% of employers use this technique and that from that pool of employers, 57% decided not to consider the applicant for a position solely based on their social media profiles. What is alarming to me is the growing number of employers who are using it to continue to monitor applicants they have hired.  Sometimes this monitoring seems to go beyond the employer enforcing adherence to company policies and ventures into the realm of employees' personal opinions and interests. I do understand if the employer is concerned with some "red flag" behavior at work, such as inappropriate language or hints of underlying violence, that the employer may want to use social media for an ...

How can libraries use social media to support digital literacy and empower their communities? In an age when information moves faster than ever, libraries have an important role to play in helping people navigate the digital world. From spotting misinformation to using online tools safely, digital literacy is essential for everyone—and social media can be a powerful platform for promoting these skills. Libraries can use their social media pages not only to share resources, but also to teach. A post about evaluating online sources, a short video showing how to recognize fake news, or a shared infographic about password security can reach audiences who might not attend an in-person workshop. These posts help patrons develop practical skills while also reinforcing the library’s mission as a trusted source of information. Engagement is key. When libraries invite their followers to comment, share tips, or ask questions, they turn learning into a two-way conversation. For instance, a Fact ...

 For years, employers have been looking up potential hires and their personal social media pages to see what they might post in their free time before making a hiring decision. Does this person present themselves to us the same way that they present themselves to the world? Is this the vision we see for this role? On one hand, I could understand where they are coming from in the case of LinkedIn. This person will be placing their new employment status on their profile and posting that they are excited to start their new position at their company! For every other situation, unless it violates a strict policy or law, I don't think this is necessary and I also think it is a breach of the potential employee's privacy. The employer is not gaining unrestricted access to all of this person's time, both in and out of the workplace. Therefore, they have no claim to what the person wants to engage in when they are off the clock. I think it is an unreasonable expectation that every pe...