Thing #20: Libraries and Social Networks

Thanks to my son (as you'll notice in these blog posts, most of my techie knowledge is "thanks to my son" :) ), I have had a Facebook page for a while now. At first it was just a way to keep in touch with my kids. Then a group of my friends joined, including a long-lost friend from high school who "friended" me. And now with the 2008 election campaigns in full swing, I have joined groups supporting two of my favorite candidates. I learned about this concept on an MPR show in which they talked about how many people were "friending" Al Franken.

I really liked the blog post by Meredith Farkas. In this statement, she summarized just how I feel: "But at the same time, I’m really pragmatic about technology implementation in libraries. I hate the idea of implementing new things at libraries because they’re “cool” and not to serve a specific purpose."

She really clarified something I'd been bothered by but couldn't quite put my finger on. I've noticed some library blogs, and the ones I'd seen seemed kind of pointless and, as Farkas points out, they're often one-sided, not inviting participation. I wasn't really sure what reason there'd be for a library blog or Facebook or Myspace page other than to "look cool," which probably wouldn't actually come across as cool to teen and college users.

Thanks to her statement and her examples, I can see that Facebook or Myspace pages can actually be USEFUL, and that's the key -- providing links to the catalog, booklists, places for people to post their questions and create some discussion. I really liked the Hennepin Co. Public Library Myspace, and a couple of the college libraries Farkas linked to were good, as well.

Lots of food for thought here. I'm thinking this could be particularly good for our distance learners. I could also see setting up links for different course areas, maybe with booklists from LibraryThing and other useful links.