Week 4 - Social Networking

Well, like the bad-guy police captain chasing Harrison Ford in Witness said upon being told the Amish don't have phones , "Thank you, sheriff....it's been a real education."

The closest I've come to social networking has been accounts at Care2 and Classmates.com (the free version;I'm too cheap to pony up for the "gold" club ). Although I've heard tons about FaceBook and MySpace, I haven't looked into them. I realize that many of our patrons (teens and adults) are using these and other social sites daily at our library, and I have to admit, I'm just not comfortable with them. I am constantly amazed at the amount of personal information and exposure available on these public sites. In the previous semester, I commented on another person's blog regarding his link to an article about people who post on blogs and social sites and the amount of personal information they share, information that is cached forever in cyberspace. They don't realize that potential employers are looking at these sites. In their painful quest to be accepted by someone - anyone! - out there, they seem blithely unaware that they are breaching their own privacy and opening themselves up to potential predators, too. Okay, I'm taking a deep, cleansing breath now...

I read Meredith Farkas' article about social networking with great interest. I do understand her reasoning that we should be out there where the people we want to serve are. But I don't agree that we need a presence in the social networking sites to do it. Don't we look like the silly adult who tries to talk and look hip to his teen kid's friends, and failing miserably, looks pretty cheesy (Marilyn's term) in the process? I feel like libraries are acting like McD's trying to be ALL THINGS to ALL PEOPLE, even those we'll club over the head to attract. Or like a big bad Yellow Pages - where else should we put that ad to get the most bang for the buck? Are teens really going to surf FaceBook or MySpace and look for us there, or stumble upon us and smack their foreheads, moaning, "I coulda gone to the LIBRARY today!" Instead of spending the last three hours finishing that research project - oh that's right, if the library has IM, they can ask the ref librarian on duty to get all the materials together for them! Ooops, my cynicism is showing again...

I did look at the Flickr slideshow of FaceBook pages and they semed pretty ordinary looking. Why even bother to have them there is the thought that comes to mind. I'm just curious if they generate a lot of hits - if yes, then that's great, it's working for them, and I'm just full of it. If anyone reading these posts works at a library with a successful FaceBook, MySpace, or similar entry that's drawing in kids and is working out well, I'd really love to hear about it. I'm open to learning how this is working in real life.

That said, I did take a look at several of the sites listed. The first one I looked at was the Charlotte-Mecklenberg's "The Loft@ImaginOn" - at first I wasn't sure where I had landed. I had difficulty reading the purple text on black background - guess that's cool these days. I did see that there are a number of posts from kids, so they must be using it. I moved to the LaCrosse Library's site with the black text on dark green background. Again, I had trouble deciphering and navigating it. Now, Arapahoe Library's site got my attention with its neat music! And it got the attention of my almost 12 yo son who's home sick today. He sauntered in, peered over my shoulder, and asked what I was looking at. I explained, and added that I couldn't read the text on the buttons (dark blue text on black buttons), and he said I could get around it by highlighting the text I wanted to read if, "they were stupid enough to use those colors", what My genius said when I showed him the previous two sites I looked at. Seems like the black background is popular - Goth? I use black in quilts to make other colors pop - just need enough contrast to read, thank you.

I think these sites had some neat looking features for teens - comment "walls", IM capability, upcoming events and books of interest to teens, etc. I think this is all great info on a library website, but I'm just not sold on it being listed at MySpace and FaceBook. I would be really curious to know if these sites generate lots of hits and comments from users, and if the librarians who manage them are in contact with their users. Please understand: I want kids to feel like we take their questions and requests seriously, that we want to offer services and programs they'll like and attend. I'm just afraid it's another "cool techy tool" that will stretch and break the already stretched-too-thin staff time and resources and not be worth it. And we'll look like we're on the "Bleedin' and Cheesin' Edge" of the technology to do it. If I had to vote this moment, I would not want my library to do a FaceBook or MySpace entry.

As for the article outlining 12 ways to use FaceBook professionally, I think people might be better off spending their time DOING THEIR JOBS than trying to figure out angles to make themselves look better online. I don't think these social networks are appropriate places for professional contacts, although heaven knows networking (online and in person)seems to be the way many people get jobs.Just MHO.

Hubby and I monitor our son's computer use at home and have warned him of the various dangers out there on Wild West Frontier of the Internet. We've explained that posting personal stuff online can be dangerous and that once it's posted, you can't take it back. I think there may be a whole carpe diem generation out there who may regret their entries in another 10 years or so, but then again, I may still be full of it.