Web 2.0 101: Week 3 - Social Networking

I've been using Facebook more and more lately--partly to investigate its possible role in libraries but mostly because some of my best friends are semi-addicted. But the homework for this class forced me to look at the broader landscape of social networking, and prompted me to look at what libraries are doing on this front.

It seems pretty clear that Facebook has a tremendous amount of appeal to a wide range of people, with customizability being the most attractive quality. I think my library and many other libraries should be using it to reinforce or create connections with users. I have strong hunch that very little information retrieval will take place(e.g., PubMed or online catalog searches) at least in terms of how librarians traditionally define it. But I have high hopes for the outreach potential of something like Facebook. As one example, for the newsletter our library targets towards our students, I wrote a piece about Gulf Coast Recovers, an public-service-oriented group that held an exhibition in one of the library's community rooms. Shortly after the newsletter piece was posted, I received an invitation to join the Gulf Coast Recovers Facebook group. Now I routinely receive invitations to socialize with this group of students. The group wisely blends fun with its serious events (e.g., screenings of movies relevant to public health, such as Sicko; dinners out at a New Orleans-style restaurant). So, I've started to think of this as a great test case for making librarian-student bonds stronger, even if it's mostly social interaction that's not at all related to libraries and info use. I'd like to see more of us make these connections even if this effort is as basic as helping put names to faces (and putting faces to libraries).

The tricky part, as I see it, is that the connection needs to be made OFF of Facebook, etc. The research seems pretty clear that the flow of contacts goes offline-to-online, not online-to-offline. In other words, it's still weird (probably rightfully so) to start a friendship online that progresses to more meaningful offline connections. It seems people like these social networking sites for reinforcing existing friendships. So, the challenge for libraries will be to make the most meaningful connections by interacting with students in the real world first, then strengthening the bond. That's what I'm reading, and that's been my experience so far.