A short note about short links

Short links are fantastic, abbreviated URLs that you can use to direct library patrons to information on the web. There are a lot of ways to create short links and many scenarios in which they can be used, but today I’m going to focus on a site called bit.ly.

Those of you that have Summer Reader, for instance, will refer your library patrons to your website, and then tell them to click a particular link to access sign up for Summer Reader. That is a great idea because it builds traffic for your website plus exposes patrons to other library resources along the way!

But sometimes you’d like to give patrons your Summer Reader URL quickly so they can access the program, and let’s face it — this:

http://staff.evanced.info/christine/sr/homepage.asp

is an awfully long URL to say over the phone.

You can visit https://bitly.com/, drop in your Summer Reader (or Events or Room Reserve) link, and it will create a short link that is much more brief and easier to pass on to patrons. In fact, when I dropped in my Summer Reader URL, this is what they gave me back: http://bit.ly/bCxTn7. Much shorter!

You can also register for bit.ly (it’s free) and then created customized short links…so your URL can be bit.ly/ourtownreads! Or whatever else you think would be catchy.

So there you go! Short links – yay!

Have you used short links at your library? Let us know!