Social Networks

This week I learned about Social Networks. We worked primarily with Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I was extremely nervous, at first, about putting my personal information out on the web. Who would be able to see it? What could they do with it? So, I looked around a bit before I leaped into setting up an account.

I started with facebook. I soon realized that I couldn't see everyone's profile. Sure enough, I found out that you can set different levels of privacy. You can decide what data you are comfortable sharing and set the limits accordingly. I decided to only share things on my page that I would share with a total stranger. I was also careful not to add anything I wouldn't want my parents to see. :-)

I like all of the applications available that seemed geared towards libraries. I was able to add my shelfari, del.icio.us, flickr, and rss feeds to the page. I was also able to add a WorldCat search engine to my page. Another cool feature I figured out only today was the IM feature. You can chat with any friends that are on their Facebook page at the same time as you are. It is the button on the bottom of the web browser marked "Online Friends." The number indicates how many people are available for chatting.

The best part was that my social networking actually worked! In one week, I have made 8 friends. 1 was a friend I told about the project, 3 are co-workers, 1 is my husband's co-workers wife who found my profile on her own, one is a friend of a friend who knows we read similar stuff (we've only met once for about 15 minutes), and the last 2 are student employees. Social network indeed. This is pretty great for 1 week. I'm curious to see how many more friends I make next week.

I next set up an account in LinkedIn. This one is geared toward professionals, so I was excited. Well, I set it up today, and I felt like I should have had my resume in front of me. Actually, I still feel like I should double check my data to make sure I am right. I feel it's primarily set up as a way to search and be searched in the job market. This is great for those job hunters and for their perspective employers. It also has a question feature that asks questions of other professionals. I haven't tried this feature yet, so I can't say how well it works. If it does, then it succeed in being a professional network. The artistic side of me wished I could play with the layout and add other features, though. Adding my del.icio.us bookmarks to share with other professionals makes sense to me if LinkedIn is intended for more than job searching. I turned off my public profile because I'm not looking for a job.

I also set up a MySpace account today. I have to say that people seem to be able to play around with their backgrounds more in MySpace. People can also add music clips to play when you open their page. Privacy settings, though, are not as streamlined. You can either make your page public, over 18, or friends only. You can't pick which parts are visible and which aren't. It's pretty much all or nothing. I'm not sure I like that. I also wasn't able to find as many applications that I liked, either. The only application I found in common with the ones I've used in Facebook was Shelfari. On the plus side, I was able to find one of my friends with which I've been trying to get in touch.

Finally, I looked at some of the libraries out there using various social networks, and I was impressed. It seems many libraries use social networks to target their teen audience. That makes sense as they are probably the highest amount of users. I've discussed this with various co-workers, and we all think this is a great way to introduce programs to that age group as they are used to instant gratification when looking for information. Denver Public had a great teen page called "eVolver - Denver Public Library Teens" which is geared to teens, has lots of current information, and seems really popular based on the amount of friends connected to the page. Some libraries gear their information to all audiences with a slight focus to younger generations. Skokie Public Library's facebook account was great in this way. It wasn't too busy and it had lots of up-to-date information.

I am starting to see how these social networks can help people connect. I also realize how addictive it can be to look for new applications to add to your pages. If our library sets up some social network pages, I think they would be a great way of both advertising our library to new people and getting information out to our current patrons.