Libraries are joining Pinterest as a new way to collaborate with both patrons and with others in the profession. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where instead of bookmarking links, you pin an image to a pinboard to serve as a visual bookmark and link back to the original source. It is a new way to organize and share things you love, and it still an invite only website.

Nevertheless, hundreds of libraries are testing Pinterest, but the question remains: What should libraries pin? To help answer this question, here on the SLIS blog we will feature a series of posts devoted to ways different types of libraries are using Pinterest, and unique ideas for pinboards.

Academic libraries are somewhat slower to adopt new social media because it may distract from their purpose of supporting learning and research. However, several college and university libraries are experimenting with Pinterest as a new way to connect with students, faculty, and staff. Here are 5 ways that academic libraries are using Pinterest:

1. Provide News and Information

• Falvey Memorial Library (Villanova, PA)
  Does your library have a newsletter or magazine it publishes? Pinning to Pinterest is another way to get people to read it and share with others. It does save on postage. Take a look at these sites.

• Duggan Library, Hanover College (Hanover, IN)

What is your library about? Who visits your library? Using an infographic and a Wordle graphic, Duggan Library tells its users about the library and also has pins linking back to its social media, blog, and affiliations.

2. Take a Visual Tour

• Purchase College Library (Purchase, NY)

• University of Nebraska Omaha Criss Library (Omaha, NE)

3. Meet the Librarians, Staff, and Student Workers

• Butler University Libraries (Indianapolis, IN)

• Carleton College Library (Northland, MN) This library does not have a Pinterest page, but they have trading cards of their librarians which someone shared on Pinterest. By clicking on the pin, it redirects you to the original Trading Cards archive.

• Falvey Memorial Library, Villanova University (Villanova, PA) Each pin links to a biography of the librarian or staff member. It also features a picture of the student worker of the month and an article about their contribution to the library.

4. Provide Services

Need to access the library's resources on the go? Are you sitting at home and cannot remember what is a scholarly resource is? Here is another way to let people know what services your library offers and show that librarians are there to support and guide you.

• Text/Chat with a Librarian, Book a Study Room Online, Wireless Printing, McKillop Library, Salve Regina University (Newport, RI)

• Research Tips and Tools, Townsend Memorial Library, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Belton, TX)

• Online Resources and Databases, University of Nebraska Omaha Criss Library

5. Display Exhibits

• University of Scranton Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library (Scranton, PA) Have you put together an exhibit in your library, but no one really knows about it? Take a few pictures and upload them to Pinterest. Check out this Alphabets exhibit!

• University of Nebraska Omaha Criss Library (Omaha, NE) This library took their exhibits and made them virtual and then shared them through Pinterest. Imagine if you were featured in an exhibit, you would share it with others and get referral traffic directed to the library website and entice people to visit the library.

These ideas originated from a collaborative video on Pinterest created in Wayne State University's LIS 6080 Information Technology on library's use of Web 2.0 technologies by libraries. Check back next week to find out 5 more ways academic libraries are using Pinterest!