Experiential Learning In Digital Marketing: A Library Social Media Takeover
While most academic libraries engage in some form of social media communication, questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of social media in building library community and the appropriateness of adding social media communication to the wide array of job duties librarians take on each day. In the spring of 2016 Saint Peter’s University Libraries allowed a student team from a Digital and Social Media Marketing class to conduct a “social media takeover” of the library Facebook account and to kickstart a library Instagram presence. This successful project led to the establishment of a social media plan for the library and the creation of a new work study position focused on digital marketing and social media outreach. This case study will describe the experience of transitioning from librarian-run to student-run social media at a small urban university library, as well as examine the effect of this experiential class component on attainment of student learning outcomes in a digital marketing class.