This module on Hyperlinked Communities talked about fostering and creating connections within your community to encourage people to view the library as a facilitator of discussion, community, and resource sharing. One of the articles talked about the influence of BookTok on libraries and bookstores in general and provided some great insight on connecting with patrons in order to anticipate and plan for new acquisitions and curation. For example, librarians have noticed more students have started going to the library to read books that have recently gone viral (Jensen, 2022).<\/p>\n
I think social media has been a real boon for libraries, at least in my corner of the Internet. I personally have not been super active in the BookTok space, but I have read several books because they were trending or recommended by a book influencer that I follow. I haven’t been super disappointed with any of those reads yet, but that may be because I’m pretty picky with what I choose to read.<\/p>\n
Social media in general has allowed libraries to engage with audiences in new ways. One cool TikTok I’d like to share with you all is one from LAPL<\/a> where their map librarian showcased one of the oldest maps in the library’s collection. It is one of their most popular videos on the account, and I think it spoke to people’s curiosities of LA history, archives, and education on niche content. Archived maps aren’t something that the average library patron will likely seek out, but knowing that is a part of library holdings can make one curious about what other types of local history and programs that the library can offer to further expand their educational horizons.<\/p>\n Another method of accessibility and reach in one of the readings are bookmobiles, which provide library materials at new locations that a standard library may not be able to provide (Lauersen, 2025). Bookmobiles are great at providing accessibility and proximity to library services for rural areas as well as those with large populations who would otherwise struggle to travel to the library. The bookmobile not only provides materials but also expertise from knowledgeable library staff on materials and other library services.<\/p>\n It reminded me of a game I recently played called Tiny Bookshop<\/a>, which is essentially a bookmobile. You play as a mobile bookstore owner who has recently moved to your late grandmother’s seaside village. Once you open shop, you interact with the townspeople and recommend them books based on their genre preferences and other requests. One thing that’s emphasized more than the financial aspect of running the bookstore is the growing relationships you have between yourself and the townspeople as you become more involved in the community. It’s a great example of what a hyperlinked library would look like in rural areas that would otherwise be library-less; the townspeople can get the materials they need while the player becomes a facilitator of community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Los Angeles Public Library [@lapubliclibrary]. (2024, July 9). It\u2019s one of our oldest maps and favorite places! Raise your hand if you\u2019ve been to Olvera Street #losangelespubliclibrary [Video]. Tiktok. https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@lapubliclibrary\/video\/7389776363164585246<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This module on Hyperlinked Communities talked about fostering and creating connections within your community to encourage people to view the library as a facilitator of discussion, community, and resource sharing. One of the articles talked about the influence of BookTok on libraries and bookstores in general and provided some great insight on connecting with patrons … Continue reading Reflection: Hyperlinked Communities<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":872,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflection-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/872"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/jmevange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}