Among our classmates, there have been discussions about how facebook pages link in with Twitter and other aps. I don't have a Facebook or a MySpace page, and I'm not sure I want one or need one. It is interesting to me, though, to think that libraries could use these tools to advocate for themselves.
Apparently some bookstores already do it, according to this article from the New York Time about MySpaces pages for City Lights and Square Books. The article ends up focusing more on how the stores are described in the profile (are bookstores male or female?, etc.) than what it means for bookstores to have a face on MySpace (in this case). Sadly, the comments for the NYT article follow this same train of thought, no debate of necessity for their presence on social networking sites, only their question of a bookstore's gender. Yes, world, this is the important stuff. The comments on the MySpace pages are filled with buy my book and thanks for adding me comments, and again, I think I must be missing something. City Lights has a website, though it doesn't seem to acknowledge the MySpace presence. I find it all very confusing. So confusing, in fact, I can't really articulate myself well.
I guess I'm just asking: what are your thoughts on stores or places (or ideas even) having a "face" on Facebook or MySpace? In what way does their presence there fill a need of the user that another resource couldn't?
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4 comments:
Here's a question for you - if our students (or teachers) are using technology of some sort - Facebook, MySpace, etc. - shouldn't we become familiar with it so we know how it does and doesn't fit into the support that a library can and does provide?
YALSA has a MySpace as do several public and school libraries. They find this to be a perfect way to keep in touch with whomever the target audience is. Authors have MySpaces as a way to keep in touch with readers and several authors have said that this has been the best way for them to hear from readers and keep up with what their readers are thinking and reading.
MySpace and Facebook also provide really good marketing opportunities not just for stores by for librarians and libraries. The bulletins feature is a great way to get the word out about what's going on in the library.
I don't have any trouble with stores having space on MySpace and Facebook. It's just a new way to get their message out. We - meaning the public of any age - just have to learn how to work within that kind of marketing. (Just like we do with magazine ads, TV ads, and such.)
I have the local library's webpage bookmarked and go there once every few weeks to check out what's going on or look up books. I check my myspace page everyday. If I made the library my friend, I would see bulletins from them everyday on my front page.
The real challenge would be getting a teenager to make a library their "friend".
Funny, I just saw a blog entry entitled "12 ways to use Facebook professionally." If you're interested: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/07/24/12-ways-to-use-facebook-professionally/
I am not on Facebook (gasp!) and, um, I don't really understand why people are. I don't get how it works. I tried Friendster for a little while. I didn't find it interactive at all--yes, people could email me, but that was yet another email address I had to check. Why not just stick to my regular email? But I didn't update it enough to really get into it. And in an odd turn, I kind of understand why you would want to "friend" a store or a library--it's a way to get updates from someone/something where you want to know what's going on but can't pick up the phone or email to ask, hey, what's up? However, um, I don't have a big desire to interact with my actual real life breathing friends through a website. I'd rather call or email them...
Back to my own blog entry now! :)
Stace,
I think some students would add their library to their myspace or facebook accounts. Because I know a lot of college students who wanted to friend me (or other young profs) when they found out they were on these types of sites. As a person, it seems a bad idea. As an organization, I suppose it's smarter, but there's still this trick for me of seperating the place and the person. Sure it's all virtual, but the person who runs the library runs the page, and I fear it would be a reflection of the librarian instead of the library. That doesn't really make sense, but just reiterates my concern between the fuzzy lines of public and private sphere that things like Facebook and MySpace (and other things) can bring up...
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