DLS social media overview: September-December 2021

In the last few months of 2021, the University of Pretoria Library’s social media pages hosted plenty of content to help users achieve their 2021 goals, as well as successfully promoting several key events for the DLS. 

Our commitment to a culture of reading across the university was livelier than ever! We shared nine brand new #UPisLit one-minute book reviews across all four of our social media platforms, including five in the week of 6-10 September to celebrate National Book Week. For Heritage Day, we shared an InstaNovel written by one of the university’s very own students, Thoughts of My Thoughts by Ivainashe Nyamutsamba, and a classic spooky tale for Halloween. We also shared a full recording of the library’s annual Mind-Altering Books Webinar on our YouTube channel, and proudly broadcast the launch of the library’s brand-new Book Nook, and continued our #CelebrateSAWriters series. 

The DLS got involved in a wide array of outreach projects during the last three months of the year. In particular, our involvement in the Tshwane Leadership Foundation’s “Feast of the Clowns” week saw our channels filled with plenty of vibrant photographs of our staff in action. We also granted a sixteen-year-old girl’s birthday wish by giving her a tour of the Merensky 2 Library, which was positively received by our community of followers. 

The International Symposium on Robotics and AI in Libraries and the Education Centre, hosted by the University of Pretoria library, engaged lively discussions across social media, particularly by live-tweeting the entire event with the hashtags #UPRobotics and #UPAI. We assisted in advertising the event for some time beforehand, largely via the creation and dissemination of several videos by Libby, the library’s service robot. In the two weeks leading up to the symposium, we extended this publication even more by tailoring our regular content to fit the robotic theme. 

As exam season began, we dedicated our social media channels to giving students all the resources they needed to perform optimally. This included helping students book study spaces, directing students to library services such as our online collection of past papers, items from our catalogue to assist with best practices in studying, and a carousel filled with useful exam tips. Our #StudyBreakQuiz, published every Monday to our Instagram Story, has started gaining a weekly following of roughly 200 dedicated quizzers. It offers a refreshing break from the hard graft of exam season, as do our weekly #jigsawpuzzle, #ThisDayinHistory, and #ThursdayThrowback posts. 

Whether by giving our followers a dash of #MondayMotivation, advertising our extensive collection through #BookoftheWeek, making the university’s research more visible with our #UPResearch series, or simply posting updates about library services in this uneasy year, the DLS social media team have ensured that library users stay informed, assisted, entertained and – above all – supported during the last few months of 2021. We are extremely excited for what 2022 has to offer on our channels, so stay tuned!