Revisiting Pinterest

The IRC Pinterest page has been active for three months; our follower total is growing steadily, though it seems to be generated more by other libraries than students or library patrons.  I have a few thoughts regarding that, specifically a collaborative board or two with IRC student workers as content collaborators. Something to ponder during the summer.

The library community is active on Pinterest, I've seen (and follow) a number of great library pages and ideas for new resources are abundant. For instance, the Valencia College West Library has a pinboard featuring their LibGuides. Great idea! Yes, I now have an IRC & LibGuides board.

Attribution continues to be key to all things Pinterest.  Pins now detail the web site source on the original pin and the new re-pinner's board as well. This is a definite improvement, especially when pinners do not remember to attribute pin source.

There are a few attribution oddities. I've noticed on one board where I included hyperlinks in the pin description, the hyperlinks are now being attributed as the source of the image.  The IRC Pinterest board QR Codes & the IRC has a collection of QR codes I created and subsequently uploaded to Pinterest.  I inserted a hyperlink in each QR code pin description enabling the user to access the connected web site; pins on those boards are now being attributed to the hyperlink. 

The twitter QR code for @IRCaulibrary was created and uploaded by the user (me), the pin description included a hyperlink.  Pinterest now attributes the image to Twitter (incorrect) and the image links to the IRC Twitter page. Since that's where I wanted the user to be be directed, it's not necessarily a bad thing. 

In cases where a simple image has been uploaded (sans hyperlink in the pin description), attribution remains "uploaded by user."  On boards where a library catalog link is included in a pin description of a book cover pinned from outside the catalog, the image is properly attributed to the source and the hyperlink remains. It's an oddity.

Pinterest has begun sending a "Pinterest Weekly" email to users.  It details people who have chosen to follow you, shows six popular boards, and recommends 'Pins You'll Love." As with other email notifications affiliated with the account, it is possible to opt out of the weekly message.

New blog posts about Pinterest consistently appear in my feed reader.  Here are a few from this week:

• Pinteresting Videos are Coming Your Way from YouTube
• With Looming Privacy Concerns, Pinterest Extends Attribution to a new Set of Sites
• More than Just a Pretty Picture? How Sociologists (and other Social Scientists) Can Use Pinterest

Retail sites are also joining the Pinterest parade! Thanks to Ellison Education for adding 'pin it' icons to their dies catalog/collection.  It definitely streamlined the process of adding the Ellison Alphabet board to the IRC Pinterest page this afternoon.