Twitter is such a short blip that at first I wondered how it could be useful to any library, much less mine. However, after looking at some and following GRPL (Grand Rapids Public Library--my daughter is currently in that community), I can see some very positive uses.

For example, a program date changes at the last minute--a twitter post could help get the word out. Or, if the library has a blog on their website, a twitter post could draw attention to any new blog postings. Or, a short tweet can be a reminder of an activity.

Or, this is the most fun--GRPL had this recent post: New blog post: Rats in the Dumpster http://www.grpl.org/blog/?p

Now of course, anyone with any sense of adventure and/or curiosity is going to look at this tweet and wonder about it. Is the library located in a rat infested area? Doesn't the dumpster get emptied frequently? Now, if either of those are the case, I probably wouldn't want to be a patron there, and if I worked there, I certainly wouldn't want to advertise the fact so that my patrons didn't want to come. So, those two possibilities couldn't be true.

So, of course, I want to learn more and I'll click on the link to their blog and get the full, true story, as well as a great photo. And I'll learn that this "incident" created some great PR even though that was not necessarily the intent.

So, can twitter help my library? Yes, but only if I use it often enough for people to be interested in what is there.

P.S. Did you check out the rat story?