Library Hours in Google, Bing, and Yelp

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If you haven’t looked up your library in Google, Bing, or Yelp to see how your institution is profiled, it’s worth doing. If no one in your library has claimed that profile (listing) for a given site, it’s a good idea to do so. At the very least, it’s a good idea to make sure the library hours are accurately represented. These services also allow the owner or representative who has claimed to it to update the URL, phone numbers, addresses, descriptions, photos, and more, that are part of profile.

The process of claiming a profile is similar across these three services:

  • You’ll need to have account on that service first before you can claim a listing
  • Look up your library on that service to find a profile box/page for it
  • Find any link on that profile/page that says something about claiming or “is this your business”
  • Before you can access that profile, the service will contact you in some way to verify that you are affiliated with that library (e.g., Bing mailed me a postcard at work with a PIN number I had to enter on a designated page from Microsoft that I logged into)

Here are links to what my college’s library (the Newman Library at Baruch College) looks like in these profile services:

Google

Bing

Yelp

The one major service I haven’t looked into yet is the one for Apple and it’s mapping service. Being a Windows/Android/Google user, I have to admit to having a blind spot when it comes to Apple. I’ll have to fire up the Apple Maps app on my iPad (my one Apple device/service) to see what my library looks like there.

3 thoughts on “Library Hours in Google, Bing, and Yelp”

  1. I am interested to hear that Yelp is still a thing in the US.

    I am in no way a social media doyenne, but I am pretty sure that it has really faded in Australia. I just looked up a few sites near me and it looks like there are hardly any reviews since 2020.

    (and popping in to say thanks for running with the blogjune batton)

  2. I’m going to guess that Yelp has also really faded here in the United States. Maybe I will just remove the hours info there altogether and not fret out it.

  3. Thanks for the reminder that I should check Bing (and Apple). I’ve been maintaining our hours in Google for 8 or 9 years, after a user complained that we weren’t open when Google said we were (their hours were extremely wrong – I have no idea where they scraped them from!). I do vaguely resent the extra work, but it’s better than having the wrong information out there!

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