“In the digital era, libraries has become essential instruments in the dissemination of information related to education, research, and development in institutions of higher education. As an agent of transformation, libraries must peform signficant attempts to adopt technologies in the improvement of the quality and variation of services,” stated Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Abdul Haris, the Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, Universitas Indonesia (UI)
in a webinar titled “Librarians as Content Creators: Employing Stroytelling in Social media Promotional Strategy”, on Monday (28/3). The webinar discussed the importance of the acquisition of technological skills by librarians in order to enable the massive distribution of information. Besides being trained in technical skills, librarians are also expected to create content in social media to spread the fruits of literacy. Social media and content is, in this day and age, important, being the key to presenting one’s image in the eyes of the general public.
The founder of the Kota Hujan Stroytelling Community, Suci Yoskarina, explained that content writers should apply a principle known in short as KISS (keep it short and simple), and be capable of correct language and creative thought. Writing effectively allows delivered points to be readily absorbed by readers. Proper language ensures that readers comprehend messages the content has to deliver. The content should also garner interest, sufficiently differ from other contents, and not be monotonous. Creativity is required in these respects.
Suci added, furthermore, that in order to create interesting content, content writers must be familiar with their target audience. This ensures that the content ‘hits’ its target. Writers must decide the most suitable way of conveying the story, call to action, and storytelling media employed. For instance, videos are more suitable to display a part of the Library’s collections than photos and text.
Social media content plays an important part in branding. A Digital Creator from Sintiawithbooks, Sintia Astarina, explained the importance of branding: it enables organisations and institutions to make themselves more widely known, increases their trustworthiness in the eyes of the audience, and a useful device in the delivery of messages and values. Branding in social media is constructed through various ways, one of which lies in storytelling. Content delivered by storytelling has a large impact due to its ability to build a bond of intimacy with the audience.
To maximalise the impact of storytelling, creators are to write stories or personal experience related to the content delivered. Personal stories will spark a bond of personal intimacy with a part of the audience sharing a similar experience. Afterwards, stories are to be ‘wrapped up’ in an interesting manner, for instance by provoking a sense of curiousity on the part of the audience in the beginning, or by employing creative formatting. Ensure the presence of a uniqueness or novelty, so that the audience finds the content beneficial.
To a library, social media mainly serves to maximalise the scope of publications. Libraries can, due to social media, attract new audiences, for the reach of social media is not limited by distance. A librarian from UI Library, Moethia Anggraeni, stated that currently, the [chief] social media [platform] employed by the Library is Instagram. Instagram has been chosen due to the complete array of features it has to offer and the presence of the Library’s target audience among users of the app. Librarians may use Instagram to upload photos, videos of varying durations, and live broadcasts.
The creation of social media content on the library is also helped by the fact that UI Library is a treasure-trove of content. Its collection of books of various fields of sciences may be turned into content. “Should [one] wish to create content on mental health, the Library has the books. We only need to read the books, sum up their gists, and turn them into content,” stated Moethia.
UI Library plays a strategic role in ensuring the fulfilment of UI’s targets, visions, and missions. Currently there are around 1.5 million collections stored in UI LIbrary and the libraries of each faculties. UI Library, true to its role as a unit tasked with supporting education and research, keeps on improving itself by increasing its collection, subscribing to online databases, improving its systems and infrastructors, and providing quality services to its visitors. Readers who are interested in examining UI’s collection may access the following link: https://lib.ui.ac.id/ . To check the Library’s schedule, visit the following Instagram account: @ui_library.
Writer: Almas | Editor: Sapuroh | Translator: jasper
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