Social Networking Sites

Currently the library I work for bans social networking sites. This policy was a knee-jerk reaction to information spread by groups with a stake in causing people to fear, such as the media (I'm looking at you "To Catch a Predator"), and well meaning groups that barely new what myspace and facebook were, if at all (in this case law enforcement, and other libraries). However, a light bulb finally went off, and so at tomorrow's meeting we will be asking for opinions on stopping the ban. My boss will be doing the initial presentation, and then asking me to share how I use social networks, and how they can be used.

With the background out of the way the rest of this post will roughly be my comments at the meeting:

The Nature of Social Networks

The first thing I want to mention is don't think of social networks, don't think of Myspace or Facebook. Think of it as internet communication. The reason I want you to think of it this way is because that's what every social network is about, that's what every website is about, that's what our online catalog is about. If it's on the internet it's about communication. Whether it's person to person, person to computer, computer to computer, it's all about communication. With that said, I'll mention how I use it personally, then profesionally, and after that I'll talk about how I think the library as an organization and the library staff as professionals can use these particular means of communicating.

Personal Use

The first way I use it is to keep in touch with family and friends. With family all across the nation from California to New Jersey, myspace and facebook allow me to keep in touch with their day-to-day activities in even more depth than a phone call would allow. It allows even the transmission of the little thoughts and quips that have long escaped our memory by the time a phone call becomes a feasible option. My 10 year high school reunion was announced over facebook. Another group I volunteer with does almost all their scheduling over facebook.

Professional Use

I've even used online communication and social networks for professional purposes. Some of you have seen the database video on our site. The software and hardware we chose for that project came from recommendations by library staff around the nation. When Kelly approached me about allowing adults to submit their reading progress for the Summer Reading Program online, I immediately began to ask other library staff whether they had done something similar and what they used. In a mix between personal and professional, I used online communication to let a friend know there was a new Michael Crichton book coming out.

Potential for the Library

As far as what we can do with it. Saying "the possibilities are endless" is cliched, but here are a few examples:

• We can let people know about events and programs that might interest them without them having to come to our website. (They're already going to Facebook and Myspace anyway, so let's talk to them there)
• Have you seen the commercials for the KGB service where you pay $0.99 and can text in a question that they'll look up? We can offer an interface to our Reference Department on these sites. Don't pay just ask a friend…ly librarian. (By the way, this suggestion came from a friend on a social network)
• They can suggest books through these interfaces, and we can track what they let us see them reading (i.e. when they post "I'm reading X and it's really good")
• and for what I think is the most important of the "we can," we can let our customers do what they want, within reason. I know there was at least one customer from Boyce who was hoping we could help her in a time sensitive family situation by giving her access to information that only existed on Facebook, I also know Janie knows of one customer who only came to a computer class to learn to use Facebook so he could reconnect with an old military buddy. Both customers will now remember us failing them. Is that what we want them remembering when the tax comes up for renewal?
  

The bottom line is we need to stop thinking of them even as social networking sites, or social networking services, and start thinking of them as virtual faces with which we can have virtual face-to-virtual face communication with our customers and people who should be our customers.