Rudaí 23 #thing8: Pinterest

I decided to look at Pinterest for this week's blog as I opened a Pinterest account about a year ago but feel I haven't really explored its features properly. I'm interested in looking at how it could be used in a library context as I have up until now used the account for precisely two things - to gather images of Bill Murray for a photo project and to collect low GI recipes. Consequently, this is what my rather sad Pinterest profile page looks like as I begin #thing 8.

Clearly, the Pinterest team thought my underpopulated profile looked a little suspect, as when I tried to access my account this week I was informed that it had been suspended because of inappropriate content! Thankfully, when I contacted the administrators they were able to reactivate my account within a few days with profuse apologies about the error and any undue upset caused...

Up until now, I put boards together using images and articles gathered only within Pinterest itself. Once I explored Pinterest for a while (a while being a black hole of hours of getting sidetracked by other people's pages) I learned how to pin websites into my boards and attach URLs to images I uploaded. I had a poke around the Rudaí 23 Pinterest boards too and it was interesting to see how they have used their account to provide support material for the course as well as to supply links to relevant articles. From what I've seen, Pinterest is mainly used by people (predominantly women) to collect images and articles for their hobbies, but for this week's task I had a look at some library-related Pinterest sites to see how Pinterest could be used in the libraries I work in.

New York Public Library's Pinterest account is the one that drew me in the most and with almost 32,000 followers I'm clearly not the only one who is taken with it. The boards are diverse, covering everything from NYPL's events to recipes and there's even a board dedicated to Downton Abbey-era images from their digital collections. Part of its strength is the way the account engages its users, asking them to contribute pins to traditional collections like the 'What are you reading' board as well as quirkier boards like 'Little Lions' which involves adding library-themed pictures of your cat to the site using the hashtag #NYPLLittleLion. By connecting their Twitter and Pinterest accounts in this way, NYPL managed to stir up interest in two of their social media accounts and the 'Little Lions' board alone has over 15,000 followers. Very effective indeed!

New York Public Library's 'Little Lions' Pinterest board

I discovered that both of the libraries I work in have Pinterest accounts and that there is great content, many interesting images and links to relevant material in both. Yet each has only a small amount of followers - learning from NYPL's great example, actively engaging users is the key to drawing people in and marketing the collections, events and initiatives in the library. NYPL's boards are spilling over with images from their document and digital collections, so using Pinterest to highlight the unique collections of the libraries I work in would be an ideal way to further engage users. Finding the time to follow other people's accounts and boards, to actively engage with users and to photograph and research the library's special collections is potentially very time-consuming however. There is a strong case to be made for the value of investing resources and staff expertise in developing a Pinterest account for libraries but the buy-in of management and staff would be key to its success.