Use of Social Media by the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society

Recently I got the chance to interview the lone arranger of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society Drew Archives. I was surprised at how much time and effort she spent updating the archives’ social media accounts. In fact, instead of using more traditional cataloguing and content management systems, the DRHS archives uses exclusively social media to make content accessible via the web. The DRHS uses Facebook, Wordpress, and Flickr to engage visitors and share information about their collections and about Duxbury history. The Drew Archives webpage includes links to some of these platforms:

Facebook

The DRHS has a main Facebook page that is updated often, with weekly posts such as “Throwback Thursday” photos and “What Is It? Wednesday,” which is a trivia contest with prizes. 

The DRHS also posts information, reminders, and photos of events such as historical tours, exhibits, social events, etc. Helpful contact information, hours, and location are included in the “about” section of the profile, obviating the need for visitors to leave Facebook. The statistics available show that this page is most popular among middle-aged people. 

The interactive weekly posts can generate around 70 “likes” and 20 comments, most likely drawing on the nostalgic feelings, and knowledge of local history, of the older generations. There is also a specific Facebook page for the Drew Archival Library, but this page is updated much less frequently and with less original content. 

The archivist updates two more Facebook accounts on a daily basis, transcribing the journal entries of a Civil War soldier and nurse, each of whom have their own profiles. To have 150 year old journal entries included in your Facebook newsfeed is a very interesting concept, and an effort-free way of learning more about history. Unfortunately, reading the diaries from the beginning on Facebook is too difficult since the newest posts are shown first. It was also hard to find these profiles. I knew they exist because the archivist told me, but I had to look through the DRHS Facebook timeline for a while before I could get to them. Soldier David Crossley Meechan has only 50 likes, and Charlotte Bradford is doing a little better with 127 likes. 

WordPress

The Drew Archives uses WordPress to publish basic contact information, a comment section for reference questions, collection finding aids, transcribed journals, and news. Called the "catablog," this platform is useful because it contains all of the most important archives information in one place that can be easily updated by the archivist. 

While there are toolbars with links on the top and side of the page, the blog format only allows for scrolling through lengthy finding aids and journals. For serious researchers looking through lots of materials, scrolling can become a maddening exercise. Still, imperfect access is better than no online access at all.

Flickr

The DRHS Flickr is the most aesthetically pleasing use of social media, not surprisingly since it consists of old photos from the archives. 

The never-ending scrolling is actually advantageous in the case of the Flickr photostream because it is pleasing to scroll through old photos, while it is annoying to scroll endlessly through text. Flickr is also a useful platform because the photos can be broken down into sets, and users can favorite photos. The map feature is especially valuable to contextualize the photos, which are all of local places, and relate them to how residents experience the town of Duxbury today. 

The Drew Archival Library has also made use of tags to allow more choices for browsing and finding photos.

Conclusions

The DRHS Drew Archival Library makes efficient use of social media to engage and promote the society to the public. In this case, social media takes the place of more traditional tools such as an online catalog or a digital library. This approach is useful for outreach, which is one of the main goals of this small historical society. Many reference requests made to the archives are about genealogy or historic houses. This sort of online presence is appropriate for the casual but curious audience of the historical society, in contrast to the complicated and technologically advanced systems used by repositories that serve large audiences of academic researchers. Nevertheless, cultural heritage institutions should always strive for growth and improvement on all fronts. While the DRHS is making good use of Flickr and Facebook, its finding aids and transcriptions would be easier to use if they were presented on a platform that allowed for more organized browsing and searching capabilities. Overall, the outreach function of DRHS is well-served by social media, but it would be more helpful to researchers to have improved access to the archives' text-based material.

Bibliography

Charlotte Bradford. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (Facebook). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/charlottebradfordnurse

David Crossley Meechan. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (Facebook). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Crossley-Meechan/322705617750933

Drew Archival Library. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://duxburyhistory.org/drew-archival-library/

Drew Archival Library. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (Facebook). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drew-Archival-Library/295306904796

Drew Archival Library. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (Flickr). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewarchives/

Drew Archival Library. (2013). Drew Archival Library [WordPress blog]. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://drewarchives.org/

Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. (2013). Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (Facebook). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Duxbury-Rural-and-Historical-Society/293774423291