In addition to all of the user-supplied informa-tion (contact information, personal informa-tion, photos), profiles include several essential social parts: friends, the wall, and groups. Like MySpace, users can request a “friend” linking with another profile. Recipients of friend requests are notified and can accept or deny friend requests. Friends are grouped by net-works-first within one’s own local network
and then within other networks, typically by college or geographic area. Facebook profiles include a wall which allows other Facebook users to post comments and links. Facebook users can write “wall-to-wall” and carry on a conversation with another user. Figure 2 shows the University of Kentucky Libraries Facebook profile, with the basic elements common to any Facebook profile identified.
Facebook users can create groups which can be open to anyone or restricted. Groups are con-siderably wide-ranging, from groups affiliated with a campus club or activity, to more general groups such as “Why do I pay for a dorm room when I spend all my time at the library” or “UK Basketball rocks my world!!!” Groups can provide an easy way to share information with others and message all members; they can be particularly useful in planning an event or a regular meeting. Groups can be fun and some-times irreverent, and they further shape one’s profile and add to one’s network.
SHOULD LIBRARIES GET INVOLVED?
Since an email address is all that is essentially required to create a profile, virtually anyone or anything can have a profile. Mascots, departments, and inanimate objects have Facebook profiles. At the University of
Kentucky, for example, even the Patterson Statue has a Facebook profile. So technically speaking, it is no problem for a library to obtain an account. As far as setting up the profile, it takes a matter of minutes. As with any online presence, what is most essential is, of course, the content.
Students are increasingly using these social networks, to the degree that some are choos-ing the messaging feature in these social net-works over traditional email and other com-munication methods. Some students log into these services and remain there all day — for them, it is as essential as phone and email were to other generations.
We try to reach students in a variety of ways — by hosting open houses, distributing flyers, setting up a table at campus or community events. Since social networks are where an overwhelming number of our students spend their time, it makes sense that we would want to be there as well. Setting up library profiles on social networking sites can serve as just one more way to put the library’s contact informa-tion out there. In addition to providing infor-mation about the library, the profile can serve as just one more way for students to provide feedback to the library. A number of students
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FOR FURTHER READING
Abram, Stephen. “What Can MySpace Teach Us in Special Libraries.” Information Outlook. 10. 5 (May 2006): 34-5.
Farkas, Meredith. “Libraries in Social Networking Software.” Information Wants To Be Free May 10, 2006, accessed August 28, 2006 .
Libraries on MySpace. Accessed August 28, 2006 .
Mathews, Brian S. “Do you Facebook? Networking with students online.” College & Research Libraries News
67.5 (May 2006): 306-7.
Mitrano, Tracy. “Thoughts on Facebook.” Cornell University Office of Information Technologies Policy
Office. April 2006, accessed August 28, 2006 .
Murray, Robb. “Students using Facebook to find virtual relationships.” Minnesota State University, Mankato.
February 14, 2006, accessed August 28, 2006 .
“MySpace.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed August 28, 2006 .
won’t bother with paper feedback forms, but they just might be inclined to submit com-ments electronically. If even a handful of stu-dents find the library in a social network and use its services as a result, isn’t it worth it?
WHAT’S NEXT?
Initially most of our “friends” in both MySpace and Facebook were other libraries around the country. We’re all experimenting, and explor-ing the profiles of other libraries is one of the best ways to get ideas and learn what is possi-ble. (If your library has a profile in either ser-vice, send us a friend request!) Students at the University of Kentucky are primarily Facebook users. We expect to see more MySpace usage as high school students with elaborate profiles established in that service go off to college, but for now we are seeing more activity in our Facebook account. After our profile was estab-lished and had a certain amount of content, the next step was to attract friends. We decided not to solicit directly to students. There is some question about whether students would see that as an invasion of “their space.” Our strategy was to send friend requests to students we knew (primarily library student workers) and faculty at UK who had Facebook profiles. We also sent a friend request to the Wildcat mascot, who has a Facebook account. Once our profile became linked to those profiles, the friends of our friends were able to discover the library profile and several new students sent us friend requests as a result. We combined this less aggressive form of direct advertising with other methods, such as promoting our Facebook pro-file during student orientation sessions. Our profile is still fairly new, but we are seeing slow and steady growth in the number of UK stu-dents who have become our friends.
We plan to continue updating our profiles reg-ularly with new content. Two of us are primar-ily responsible to maintaining the profiles in both services, but we have recruited help from several other librarians in the system to con-tribute content. In addition to basic contact information and tips on using the library, we regularly add items that we hope will be of interest to students. At the beginning of the fall semester, we included tips for new stu-dents as well as information about obtaining and activating the campus ID card. We linked to some tips for using Facebook wisely and featured information about a campus safety seminar which discussed responsible use of Facebook. We have created a series of photo albums to give the site some color, including an album of sketches of the future Information Commons, a collection of cam-pus banners on display in Young Library, and a fun series of librarians on vacation and just generally having fun.
In general, we strive to keep up with what’s new. Today’s number one site may be MySpace, but it will inevitably be replaced by something else. Just a few years ago, Friendster was the hottest social networking site around. Mention it to a student today and you may get a blank look or “ugh, that’s where my big sister’s friends used to hang out.”
Social networking sites give libraries just another option to reach our clientele in new ways. As we utilize these new tools, it makes us realize that it is truly an exciting time to be in this profession.