How To Be A TokStar Librarian

In December 2019 my students finally convinced me to get a TikTok account and post my first video. I was very nervous mostly because I didn’t know a lot about the TikTok platform. I’ve heard them talk about it for a good 8 months before finally deciding to get my own account. And what happened next shocked me: I spent the ENTIRE holiday break in the TikTok world. I watched videos by amazingly talented dancers, choreographers, artists, crafty people, teachers who shared great classroom info, and hilarious videos by comics, actors/actresses and/or just funny people in general. I saw motivational videos that made me cry. I saw young women voice their thoughts, feelings and share their stories of abuse, neglect, sexual assault and violence. I was in awe of their strength, power and courage.

Once I got back to school in January I made it a goal to film at least one TikTok video a day. My students who once cheered me to join now called me cringe and I was 100% okay with this. Because now I was having fun making dance videos and funny recordings of voiceovers. Students started noticing and commenting on my skills—mostly positive, so much so that when we had a pep rally in February that was TikTok themed I was asked to compete in a TikTok dance off boys vs. girls. Guess who won this?

When distance learning started in March, @akbusybee reached out to me and several other TikTok librarians to ask if we wanted to form a community like the SchoolHouseRock has done with teachers. We had a Zoom meeting to introduce ourselves and then we created a Discord chat to come up with ideas. We created @tokstarlibrarians on TikTok and Instagram to create positive library-themed content. It’s so great to get ideas from these men and women in our group and to show that you can use social media in a positive, responsible way. This is the main reason I stay on TikTok, other than it being fun. I follow mostly librarians and teachers so that’s the majority of the content I see when I get on. Like any social media app, there’s going to be good and bad. If you surround yourself with like-minded content creators, it’s going to be fun and suitable environment. When people say TikTok is nothing but a bad app, I have to strongly disagree. I’ve gotten amazing professional development opportunities, as well as ideas for the library, lessons and technology from it. What I’m trying to say is: find your people. The same can be said for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, etc. I want to show students that what you put out in the world represents you and can have lasting effects. I plan on using my TikTok when I teach digital citizenship this year. Hop on! You don’t even need an account to view the app. Simply download it and start watching, but it won’t curate content that’s specific to you unless you create an account and start following people you want to see on your For You page everyday. Then the TikTok algorithm will do it’s thing and start showing you people you might want to follow based on those you already follow.

I was lucky to participate in a podcast by Librarian Influencers on my TikTok PLN, using social media in the library and branding myself in the librarian community. It was such a joy to talk to Laura about all these topics and share some goals I have for this summer and school year ahead. To be honest things haven’t been so great since March. I struggle with anxiety and everything going on with COVID-19 and the uncertainty of what the 2020-2021 school year will look like has really amped up my stress to new levels. TikTok helps. I’m able to exercise when I learn new dances, laugh at myself when I make a funny TikTok voiceover, share books & authors and get new and exciting ideas to bring back to the library when things return to normal. It’s also been a great way to stay in contact with my students. They see my videos either on TikTok or when I share them on my IG Stories and they reply all the time with positive reviews and feedback. I even had a few students come out to me on TikTok because I shared that our library was an inclusive place during June for #LGBTQIA+ month. The fact that they felt comfortable enough with me to trust me with that information means more than I can say. Using social media allows me to reach them on their level, get their jokes, know their verbiage/lingo. If I get even one student to trust me or confide in me or reach out to me in the library then all of my social media accounts are worth it.