Method 8

Social networking as the name implies is for socialization. The Library has always been a place for socialization. However in this instance I am not sure that social networking works. In Facebook and Myspace you invite people to be your friends and to me the library does not quite seem like a place to be friends with. The concept of the library being on Facebook to people is more of the building than a group of librarians who want to help. Besides most people come to the library only when they need information after they seek the information and are satisfied they would only come back if they need some more information. They are not likely to build a relationship with the library. In looking at the libraries that had presence on Facebook most of them had very few friends and a lot of the post had very few comments if any.

It is all good if the library has a presence after all it is free advertising but what good is it if there is no feed back from the target audience.

I like Myspace page of the of the Texas tech University better than the Facebook. In Myspace you were allowed to be creative so you could really personalized the page. I don't know how many students there are in Texas tech but there were only 113 friends . Facebook provided the capability of statistics but there were not much stats. Even a Youtube video on the page had zero comments. A discussion of football had two comments which goes to show you that the library is probably not seen as a friend in terms of social networking.

I think that since you have to invite people to your site and they can refuse your invitation it is going to be a daunting task for libraries to gain as many friends as individuals.