I found Clay Shirky's presentation from last month interesting and thought provoking.  It's 15 minutes and he covers a lot of ground, but it made me bend my thinking in terms of social media usage and outreach.  Reach out or have others reach in?  How would a library do this?  I'm still thinking about it . . .  If anyone has posted this already, mea culpa - somehow I missed it.

Here is my facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/people/C-Jasmin-Abad/1558995072

A resounding yes; libraries of all types should be trying to participate in SNC’s I feel that academics libraries and any library program that serves youth and young adults should make every effort to have an active presence in a SNC. My reasons are:

Libraries and Social Networking

Hi all,

here's a link to my facebook profile. I've sent a friend request to most everyone who has posted already.

-Claire

Here's a link to my Facebook page, but I'm kind of hoping only friends can see it. I can't tell because FB only lets you see how your friends see your page, not anybody else. I just read "Little Brother" (which I posted about before) so I'm all about the privacy these days! Here it is: 

http://www.facebook.com/jodilevin

Hi all

Here is my Facebook wall to find the classmates I have friended click on 'see all' under friends and look for faces/names you recognize!

 Adrienne's Facebook page

The question of whether or not libraries should be establishing a presence on social networking sites is a hard one to answer because there are so many variables that have to be taken into account.  Each library has their own issues in regard to what kind of web presence they already have, what kind of users utilize the library, as well as the staff hours that can be devoted to maintaining a social networking presence (if staff hours are not available then this is all a moot point – social networking demands continual interaction).

What do you think some of the drawbacks are, or challenges that libraries may experience with social networking?

One of the biggest challenges that faces libraries is the time investment needed to have an active and successful presence in social networks. People use social networks because the information changes. A stagnant status or lack of updates negates the purpose of being present in the network; it won’t attract attention.