The seal of the Republic of Texas is featured on the entry doors to our Lorenzo de Zavala Building in Austin. The seal is also our profile picture for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.
This is a photo mosaic of the Lone Star Flag in our historic flag collection. The tiles are photos from our Flickr photostream.
The Austin American-Statesman ranked our social media program one of the Top 10 in Austin for 2013.
Other ways to connect:
Social Media Overview
TSLAC's social media program advances the agency's mission to preserve yesterday, inform today, and inspire tomorrow through content that is educational and engaging to a broad audience and that documents the agency’s activities in Austin and around Texas. This webpage provides an overview of our social media properties and how they’re utilized. Unless otherwise noted, each property is managed by the agency’s Communications Office.
Our Facebook page delivers a mix of content focused mainly on Texas history (via materials from the Texas State Archives), Texas libraries, and related trends and websites. Now that Facebook has a hashtag system, we use our key hashtags as much as possible: #TexasHistory, #TexasLibraries, #PictureTexas, #talkingbooks, and #recordsmanagement. We also use titles to indicate when certain posts are part of an ongoing sequence. The sequence might be short-term (posted on a single day or over a week) or long-term (posted over weeks or months). The sequence titles currently in use are:
- Flashback Friday: A long-term sequence posted on nonconsecutive Fridays that presents a flashback of the entire state of Texas using historical maps from the State Archives.
- Scene @TSLAC: A long-term sequence that captures the scenery of and around TSLAC’s headquarters on the Texas State Capitol Complex. The photos are collected and captioned in our Scene @TSLAC photo set on Flickr. Example: Alamo 1824 Flag
- Quotables: A long-term sequence of word+image graphics showing quotes that evoke Texas history and Texas libraries. Posted as often as possible. Examples: Santa Anna: why the Alamo defenders had to be killed (1874) | Sam Houston: "I will never do it" (1861) | I Am A Reader | Whatever the Cost
- Today's Curiosity: A long-term sequence that spotlights, at random, a striking image from our Picture Texas with TSLAC Flickr group or from our various archival collections. Examples: Women at Fort Sill (1899) | The Rogers Family (1905)
- Short-term sequences are occasioned by holidays, observances, and historical events, such as San Jacinto Day, Texas Independence Day, National Library Week, Women's History Month, and so on. They feature items from the State Archives and/or from Flickr that evoke the theme being observed.
Our Twitter feed is used largely to share agency news, recent posts from the agency's active blogs, items from the State Archives, to live tweet during agency events and special occasions, and to trend our key hashtags.
- Key hashtags: #TexasHistory, #TexasLibraries, #TexShare, #recordsmanagement, #talkingbooks, #PicTex
- Tweetups: In December 2012 and 2013, we hosted a tweetup in conjunction with our annual effort to raise money for local families in need during the Christmas season. Hashtag was #ChristmasFamilies: 2012 photos | 2013 photos
- @TSLAC_Director: The Twitter feed maintained by agency Director and Librarian Mark Smith.
Flickr
Our Flickr photostream documents the agency’s events and activities in Austin and around Texas.
- Scene @TSLAC: This is a growing photo set that captures the scenery of and around TSLAC’s headquarters on the Texas State Capitol Complex. Much of the scenery evokes themes of Texas history (e.g., the Republic of Texas, the Civil War) that can be linked to relevant resources on TSLAC’s website, such as online exhibits of the State Archives.
- Picture Texas with TSLAC (group | guidelines): Launched March 2013, this is a Flickr group we administer inviting you to share original photography that captures the spirit of Texas as you see it, from wherever you are. The photos range from eye-popping Texas landscapes, monuments, and street scenes to surprising, intimate portraits. We contribute our own photos to the group alongside other individuals and organizations on Flickr, and we regularly draw on this massive pool of Texas-themed imagery to enhance our social media content, mostly on Facebook. Examples: Condolences to Moore, OK | Battleship Texas | Archives War | In a Sea of Bluebonnets
- The Texas State Archives manages a Flickr photostream separate from the one managed by the Communications Office to share selected imagery from its collections with the Flickr Commons: www.flickr.com/photos/texasstatearchives/
YouTube
Our YouTube channel provides videos of special occasions, such as speakers invited to make a presentation to the public on a certain topic.
- On April 17, 2014, we broadcast our first-ever Google+ Hangout in celebration of National Poetry Month and National Library Week. The broadcast was recorded and is now available as a YouTube video: "Poetry Matters"
- The agency’s Library Development and Networking Division manages a YouTube channel separate from the one managed by the Communications Office to share training videos for Texas library professionals: www.youtube.com/tslacld
Mentions & Recognitions
We are honored to have received the following mentions and recognitions for our social media program:
- July 2013: "4 State Archives Worth Documenting," ArchiveSocial
- May 2013: "Most Social Media Friendly State Libraries for 2013," LibraryScienceList.com - ranked #3 overall and #1 on Facebook
- March 2013: Austin American-Statesman Top 10 Social Media Award for 2013
Terms of Use
Our social media properties are governed by terms of use that we recommend you become acquainted with as you engage with us on social media. Access the terms of use here.
