Pinterest as a Tool: Applications in Academic Libraries and Higher Education

Pinterest, a pinboard-style social photo-sharing website, has become a popular site for many individuals who collect images that help them plan, organize, and explore any topic of interest. Launched in March 2010, Pinterest now has over 10 million users and is continuing to grow. Libraries and educators are starting to explore this new type of social media and how it can be used to connect with and inspire their patrons and students. This article will look at how the University of Regina Library is currently using Pinterest to engage and interact with the University community. This social tool has appealed not only to librarians but educators as well. Pinterest is starting to have an impact on the way educators teach and present information and ideas to their students. The popularity of Pinterest has even inspired other image-based social media sites such as Learnist. After developing a Pinterest account for the library, a list of best practices were created. The library looked at copyright considerations and developed a series of questions to help us determine whether to pin or repin an image. This article will look at how Pinterest can be used in libraries and higher education, and some of the copyright considerations involved in using this image-driven site.