The prolific Walt Crawford is a writer and speaker on libraries, technology, and media, and the author of seventeen books in these fields. He began his social media project in fall 2011 as a “rolling snapshot” that eventually encompassed thirty-eight states and nearly 6000 libraries, just over half of which were found to have a social media presence. His goal was to examine the prevalence of Facebook and Twitter usage for library communication, as well as the extent to which these media actually reach an audience.

The author carefully defines terms such as LSA (legal service area population), “likes,” presence, and reach, and breaks down his findings by HAPLR size—ten size divisions of public libraries as used in Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings. This book is not for librarians who want a “how-to” or for those who don’t have the patience for number crunching. However, as Crawford presents his findings, the text is loaded with real-life examples of postings arranged by HAPLR size. The examples show successful posts, loaded with humor, invitations, anecdotes, and questions. A chapter on state-by-state findings helps benchmarking among comparable-sized libraries.

Crawford’s survey helps answer questions such as: Should libraries devote staff time to social media activities? Can they sustain these activities and engage their communities effectively? Do their patrons expect to see them in these media channels? The survey viewed social media as actual engagement, something beyond simply another publication channel. Some best practice issues are raised, including how frequently to post, how to deal with spam, and how to pull the plug if it is just not working.

The take-away lesson here is that libraries of all sizes can have vibrant and engaging social network presences. Crawford notes that his research left him with a greater appreciation for the extent to which small libraries are the centers of their communities. In his closing thoughts, he says he is not daunted by the fact that few public libraries’ social media efforts reach even 10 percent of their potential patrons. Crawford found that 94 percent of all library Facebook pages had significant gains in the number of “likes” during the four-month period that he studied, and he declares that, ultimately, each library must define success for itself.