LibraryTok is the Place for Feel-Good Book Connections
TikTok isn’t just for dances and baked feta pasta recipes. School librarians are leveraging the social media platform to ignite a passion for reading and to showcase the role of libraries in the digital age. CNN reports that Library Tok is the nickname for the corner of social media inhabited by librarians, who use their platform to collaborate with each other, connect to young audiences, advocate for libraries, and inspire a love of books.
What is LibraryTok
Jen Miller is a school librarian by day and social media star by night. She has amassed nearly half a million followers on her TikTok platform, Meet Me in the Media Center, where she showcases aspects of her job in a middle school school media center. Miller tells CNN, “The best people are at Library TikTok. It is a community like none other.”
LibraryTok, TODAY explains, is a place where librarians can promote books and reading to viewers and followers. In other words, LibraryTok is not just for librarians. With 800 collective views, the hashtags #librarytok, #librarytiktok, and #librariansoftiktok demonstrate that ordinary people are fans too.
“Library professionals are quick adapters to emerging technology and the way they have been able to harness a power platform such as TikTok is a testament to that,” the president of the American Library Association, Cindy Hohl tells CNN in a statement.
“Through LibraryTok, audiences have been able to see the different resources a library offers and they are reminded about the central role a library plays in the community.”
Getting visitors back in the doors
LibraryTok made its big debut in the post-pandemic world, according to TODAY. Neil Albrecht, interim director of community relations and engagement at the Milwaukee Public Library, tells TODAY that Covid-19 had a pretty profound effect on people’s ability to access libraries. Even after the restrictions eased, visitors and volunteers were slow to return to the bookshelves.
In June 2022, she, along with library data analyst, Derek Reilly, and library accountant, Evan Szymkowski started a new TikTok account, @milwaukeepubliclibrary. Their first post, a whimsical skit about librarians’ excitement to see patrons browsing the books on library display tables, garnered 16,000 views. A year later, the Milwaukee Public Library account already had millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers.
View this post on Instagram
LibraryTok as a platform for advocacy and giving
About half of the followers of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and Milwaukee Public Library accounts are locals. Readers nationwide make up the rest of their viewers, as LibraryTok showcases the importance of libraries across the country.
“There is a national attention to the relevance of libraries in every community. You see libraries being shut down because of budget constraints or book band related issues. It’s really an important time for libraries to be contributing to discussions about their role,” says Albrecht
Heather Grace, who goes by the social media handle The Contoured Librarian, is another school librarian who moonlights as a social media star, according to CNN. She has 400,000 followers. Grace tells CNN that the LibraryTok community has helped her get through disheartening times, including school library budget constraints and book bans.
Grace has also solicited donations through her social media accounts that have allowed her students, many who are below the poverty line, to participate in the Scholastic Book Fair. “It’s such a beautiful thing to witness and it all started because of TikTok,” Grace says
Building local and nationwide communities via LibraryTok
LibraryTok isn’t just about reaching local and national audiences, according to TODAY. It has also created opportunities for community building within the Milwaukee Public Library itself.
“You’ll see people who work in other departments that are like completely across the building and they’re working other hours than you, but she may be acting alongside them in a short form video,” Seimsen-Fuchs tells TODAY.. “Then when you see them in the elevator, it’s a conversation starter.”
Beyond the library walls, the Milwaukee Public Library TikTok account is building citywide and nationwide connections.
Reaching a younger audience
LibraryTok is also successful at reaching new library lovers. The average age of Milwaukee Public Library followers is 34 years old.
Miller tells CNN that she also is able to interact with a younger audience through Tiktok. 84 percent of her viewers are 18-34 years old, a significantly higher percentage of young people than the 54 percent of millennials and Gen Zers who reported visiting a library in 2023, according to an American Library Association report.
She attributes the interest among young people to nostalgia, with millennials and GenZ remembering their school libraries and enjoying watching Miller stock her school library shelves with the books they had enjoyed in Middle School.
“Librarians are kind,” Miller says. “They want you to feel seen. They want to provide books that show representation. They want you to see yourself in books, and they also want to curate a collection where you’re not only seeing yourself in books but you’re seeing others in books.”
