For those of you who haven’t heard about this group, there’s one called: Facebook Apps for Libraries. According to the group, “FacebookAppsForLibraries is a Global Group devoted to the use of third-party Facebook applications for enhanced library services.” There are also a couple of articles: Reaching Users Through Facebook and Digital Reference in Facebook App that talk about how libraries are using Facebook.
Cathy
Chad said,
February 11, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I was thinking about libraries and facebook the other day. Like I do. And the conclusion I came to was that there might be a lot of potential for library promotion in the social networking website realm but I don’t think most libraries will be able to fully realize the potential.
Libraries are run from a librarian’s point of view. There’s a group of professionals working together to optimize the library experience in a way that balances patron needs with library ideals. And that’s a good thing. But it’s also a “mature” thing. A serious thing.A group thing.
Social networking sites are geared towards the kids. The teens and early 20-somethings. They’re the ones who fearlessly, sometimes stupidly, forge ahead and make the sites work to their full potential. To be a big presence on a social networking site you have to have a fearlessness and a “coolness”.
That’s easier to achieve when you’re an individual. It’s well nigh unto impossible when you’re part of a group. What libraries need to succeed in the world of social networking sites is an army of really smart teenage employees who are given a major say in how to work the angles.
What are the odds?
Pat Rapp said,
February 11, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I disagree with Chad on this. Social networking sites may have started out as a means of communication for college students, then trickled down to the younger crowd, but they are all-encompassing now, and have been for quite some time.
Some things worth noting:
1. There are plenty of us (ahem) mature folks all over the social networking landscape. On Facebook, I’ve connected with high school friends, relatives (even aunts and uncles who are way too old to be there! LOL), colleagues and business associates who are way past 20-somethings. Most of the librarians I’ve met in Second Life are in their 40s and 50s, and some in their 60s and 70s. Baby boomers have flocked to LinkedIn like crazy in the wake of layoffs and down-sizing.
2. The library page I set up for my library on Facebook has close to 70 fans — people who love our library and want to be connected to it. What’s most interesting about this is that we have never promoted it. We have not yet begun posting our programs and events on it. But still, people have connected to us. That’s pretty darn cool. And it’s free.
3. Even if these sites were just for kids — that’s ok, too. Why not have a library presence on MySpace? It’s a great way to reach teen patrons.
4. You don’t need to be a really smart teen to use these tools. They’re out there for all of us — free, easy to use, and providing fantastic results.
I could go on all day about this, but you get my point. The more ways we connect to patrons, the better.
Chad said,
February 11, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I think I didn’t present my idea very clearly. Always a risk with me.
I think your points are all very valid. I myself use social networking sites extensively. And I’m nearing 40. I use them for many of the same reasons you do with many of the same results. All of which are wonderful and good.
And I think it is GREAT that your library has a Facebook page and that it is gaining momentum.
Here’s more where I was headed with my thinking:
Your library has a Facebook page. And it has 70 friends- a goodly number. How many of those friends are staff? How many are regular users? How many are people who haven’t heard of your library before?
You’ve had good results just by creating the page. But you admit that you haven’t really done anything with it. You’re just letting it grow naturally. Again, nothing wrong with that.
But…..
What if you wanted to be more aggressive with it? What if you wanted to target a demographic that doesn’t use the library regularly and go after it? How would you go about it?
If you look at how you use Facebook (and how I use Facebook) it’s more about finding familiar faces or people with commonalities. Then look at how the kids use social networking sites. They’re aggressive in their use, almost viral. They collect friends and friends of friends and are willing to spend hours doing so.
I was suggesting that a way to outreach is to take a member of the demographic that most actively uses the social networking tools, give them some basic parameters and let them go.
Social networking tools are still relatively new from a sociological point of view. They’re still evolving. (Just look at the differences between Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook. Xeni Jardin has written lots of interesting stuff on the social netwowrking sites.). And the people driving the evolution are the teens and the 20-somethings. It’s something they’re adept at. Why not use those skills to our benefit?
I think we should use every single thing we can to get butts into libraries. But I think we’ve got to be willing to think outside the box a bit to use the tools of this new-fangled modern age).
Oh, and someone just informed me that I’m a dinosaur for thinking about social networking sites anyway. It is apparently all about Twitter at the moment.
cathykyle said,
February 12, 2009 at 4:05 am
I figure all a librarian needs to do is get a good Facebook group going, get the pages to be friends and let it go from there. I have business cards that I hand out with our blog, our facebook and our twitter. Of course, I’m also still a 20-something for a couple more months, so I can be tech-savvy until April. Then, who knows?
Actually, I’ve spoken to some of our pages and there’s a thread on YALSA (ALA’s Teen services listserv) about how teens don’t really use Twitter much because Facebook accomplishes about the same thing that Twitter does, plus more.
However there are quite a few government agencies that use Twitter now. http://fly4change.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/the-governments-a-twitter-take-2-its-official/ In fact Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra was in the news recently because he posted on Twitter about his whereabouts when he was in Iraq. http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/02/pete_hoekstra_says_twitter_is.html
Pat Rapp said,
February 12, 2009 at 8:10 am
Chad, I agree – putting the Facebook page up and letting it grow naturally is not the best use of it. (Although it is fascinating to watch it grow with absolutely no updates or input from us.) I’m looking forward to using it aggressively to target the library’s non-users, and have lots of ideas on how to lure them into the library. I’m just waiting for the ok. In the meantime, we’ve had quite a few non-staff-members become fans, which is really exciting.
: )