Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Tome-team advantage: How Toronto’s librarians bring baseball trash-talk to social media

by Jill Mahoney
October 14th, 2016

Librarians are not generally known for their sports taunts, but the Toronto Public Library has not-so-quietly become an avid booster of the city’s teams with cheeky social media posts.

In a practice that began last year, Toronto Public Library staff have lobbed gentle catcalls at their library counterparts in cities whose teams have faced the Blue Jays and the Raptors in the playoffs.
Now, with the Jays in the postseason again, library staffers are back at it. The posts, which are written as poetry using the spines of books accompanied by props, have been well received by fans as well as librarians in opposing cities. 

“We know that the fans love it and it’s also a fun exercise for us at the library too,” said Mabel Ho, the Toronto Public Library’s social media lead. “It’s a good opportunity for us to build off the momentum and the excitement from the city.” 

The bookish Twitter war began last year when the Kansas City Public Library tweeted at the Toronto Public Library to mark a win by the Royals over the Jays in the American League Championship Series.

Not to be outdone, Toronto library staff fired back the next day.

The trash talk continued until Kansas City eliminated the Jays.

The Toronto Public Library also lobbed gibes when the Toronto Raptors played the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association Eastern Conference semifinals, going so far as to stage a photo showing raptors claws about to mail a book on strategy after Toronto won the series.

With the success of the Jays this year, the city’s library staff are again planning witty posts, which appear on the library’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Last week, they put up a post apologizing for the throwing of a beer can onto the field during the wild card game between the Jays and the Baltimore Orioles while standing behind Jose Bautista’s bat flip last year while playing the Texas Rangers.

Library staff planned another post on Friday when the Blue Jays play the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

Source: Globe and Mail 

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