Social Networking Tools--Impressions and Observations

I have varying impressions of MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

MySpace: I've always shied away from MySpace because it seems too unbounded and limitless. Any page can look like anything, which is disorienting. So I've never used it.

For a while I thought that Facebook would be a strong but distant second to MySpace, like Macs are to Windows machines. Lately, though, it seems that there is much more buzz about Facebook than MySpace.

LinkedIn: This feels like a site you must be on to be "professional." But it is the anti-MySpace, with too much of a snob quotient for its own good. So I accept whatever LinkedIn invitations come my way, but never do anything more with it.

Facebook: Here is where I bide my time, sometimes in excessive quantities. Compared to MySpace, Facebook is orderly. But compared to LinkedIn, it is accessible and friendly. My main uses of the site are to see the status of friends and to lose at games of Scrabulous. There are sometimes new pleasing features--just this weekend I encountered a "you might know" feature, based on the friends of my friends. And it was fun to get lots of birthday greetings a few weeks ago, because Facebook friends saw that it was my special day. While Facebook properly received ridicule for its Beacon campaign a few months ago--which would have alerted your friends about your recent online purchases--overall it is a well-designed site.

I think libraries should have pages on social networking sites, as should individual librarians. My only caution is that there should be some kind of purpose for this presence--not a tightly sketched, exhaustively vetted purpose, just a reason for being. A spirit of experimentation and playfulness is important in Web 2.o-land, but some old-fashioned introspection before leaping after every new tool is also vital.

MLA does not need to do anything in particular to support social networking among members. I have many MLA friends on Facebook, and we all found each other on our own. MLA provides the glue on which Facebook relationships can thrive, and that's a service in and of itself.

How you should present yourself on any social networking site, especially those that blend personal and professional aspects of one's life, is an open question. It's easy to become too cautious and present totally bland versions of yourself, just to make sure you don't shock or offend. The other extreme--of blatant shock and offense--is easy enough to pull off too, and just as troubling. I'm not sure where the proper balance lies.

Differences Between Blogs and Wikis

Blogs are good for archiving content--whether the original posts or comments. Even if people don't make many comments (which often happens), blogs can facilitate such discussion.

Wikis are better for on-the-fly edits and can be useful in teaching. For example, rather than giving out a paper handout you can make a wiki page the "handout" and update it instantly based on feedback during a class. This does require the instructor to be more flexible than they might be used to.

RSS: Its Use in Libraries

[Note: This is a very well-designed course. I am looking forward to the complementary plenary session at MLA '08!]

RSS--Use in Libraries: RSS feeds are an excellent way to deliver news to all patrons (about items that affect everyone), and targeted news items to selected patron groups. Although setting up an RSS feed is very easy, it does not seem that way at first. So librarians should also continue to educate patrons about the benefits and ease of use of RSS. Also, it's always good to remember that we are likely to know more about time-saving tools than many patrons; sometimes we'll need to step back and take it slow.

RSS--Use by Patrons: RSS can be an amazing time-saver for patrons struggling to keep up with the relevant literature in their subject area. Once librarians show patrons the benefits of PubMed search and TOC RSS feeds, patrons will be so excited that they should immediately set up 100 feeds. (Or, perhaps, continue to use MyNCBI's email alert feature--we should extol the benefits of new technologies, but not overdo it if something else is working sufficiently.)