Social Networking: Should MySpace include LibrarySpace?
As per Jade's request, I located and read an article that discusses social networking sites. Having a vested interest in libraries and library outreach, I read an article relating one library's experience with their MySpace profile. The citation for the article I read is:
Evans, Beth. (2006). Your Space or MySpace?. Library Journal, 131(supplement), 8-12.
The author discusses social networks, including MySpace and Facebook. To market the library and provide another service point, the author's library (Brooklyn College Library) created a MySpace account, had library student workers search for BC students in Myspace, and invited as many students as they were able to find. The myspace page was used as marketing tool, to announce library events/services, to supplement outreach efforts, to connect with students on a more personal level, and to provide reference and information services to students who requested it. According to Evans, the Brooklyn College students seem to appreciate the library myspace presence and have posted many positive comments.
Should libraries (and other similar institutions) have a presence on MySpace or other social networking sites? How do you think the main users of those sites view library profiles and having librarians in their space? A quote from the article says: "students will take a library's presence in MySpace seriously provided you take them seriously". Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
I appreciate all comments...
posted by Mary @ 9:36 PM
1 Comments:
Mary,
In doing research for information on SNC's I found a few articles written by K-12 librarians who were upset that their administration (and Congress) had banned Facebook and MySpace. One of the articles discussed how the author was disappointed because students were missing out on opportunities with a tool that they enjoy. They were forced to only access their accounts at home and consequently, their participation increased and they began trying to sneak access at school.
Another article discussed the potenial that SNC's have for learning and sharing international information. The author mentioned a MySpace profile of a famous author (the name escapes me) who publishes their work on their MySpace page and offers links to other friends who do the same.
Very interesting article. Thanks for the info and for the flash demo :)
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