Social Networking

Social networking sites are all the rage right now and learning 2.0 is no different.

I've been on Facebook for at least two years and I can tell you how frequently I use it--about once every six months. I see the use and value of social networking sites, but I don't like the tendency people have to use them break down all walls to privacy. There are people who put their entire schedule, address, phone number and life on these sites. It's shocking to me. I prefer to have significantly more control over how information about me is disseminated.

Many libraries are using Facebook to try and connect to their users and I can see a value in this. Like messaging programs, some students spend every available moment on these sites. If they can easily access a librarian or library through this site--it can potentially increase their use of the librarian or library.

However, that presumes that a user will think to look for and use these sites as tools to connect to libraries. I don't actually see many users using these sites that way. In fact, I find more users are locking their profiles and restricting their access because they don't like that administrators and other personnel are using sites that were previously restricted to students. Given that bias, I'm not sure how many students will use these sites to connect to libraries and the question of a library presence on a social networking site becomes something of a moot point.

Now, as a way for librarians to connect, form bonds and work across state lines, institutional boundaries and cultural barriers--this could be an amazing tool. Imagine asking a Librarian at Oxford if they wouldn't mind checking a manuscript in their collection for a quote for a professor here in the states. Now that would be a powerful and amazing use of these technologies. I think the focus should be less on how to reach the students through this technology and more on how to reach ourselves, expand our boundaries and increase our usefulness (as in the Library 2.0 articles) if we are useful and helpful, the students will come to us and we'll be where they come looking.