A social networking site I can get behind
Everyone in libraryland and beyond is talking about the power of Web 2.0. And why not, there is a lot to be excited about in the world of interactivity such as open tagging and reader reviews in library catalogs. But librarians having myspace and facebook profiles? I mean eek let the students have their own space.
Hey don’t get me wrong, if you happen to be a librarian and you also love these tools and you use them to talk to your friends then by all means bring your library-ness along for the ride. What I object to is trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. I guess what I am saying is don’t force it!
I think going onto myspace after a certain age (and I am definitely of that age) is kinda creepy. It reminds me of when I was a young alt-youth trading obscure music all around the country with friends. Everyone was sharing music through the mail and it was intimate and oh-so age specific, I mean back then you didn’t hear of band like the Flaming Lips until someone snuck them into a mix tape and then you were hooked. Then there were always these creepy older guys hanging around who wanted to be in the scene, they wanted to pay to take you to a show or something else enticing (especially when you are broke). It always felt forced and just, well, weird and if I were in my twenties and logging onto myspace every five mintues (which I am sure I would be doing) I would not be looking to talk with my librarian.
I think every generation should have there own space, and by the very definition of individuation, it should be theirs alone.
But, here is a social networking site I can get behind. Good Reads: check me out
What did nerdy people like me do before the internet? Trade books and tapes with friends through the mail, of course. So Goodreads is just a logical extension for all of us now scattered across the country. We look at each other’s stuff –like the other day I saw two friends, one in DC and one in Austin, reading the same book-hmmm! They don’t know each other so you can bet I am interested in this book now…
Speaking of Austin, if you are into music you should check out two documentaries that are sad, strange and beautiful:
I totally agree!
Having your librarian show up as one of your “friends” might possibly have about ten minutes worth of kitsch appeal but after that it’s going to look odd. Wrong even.
This is a place for *real* friends, people who want to see pictures of you drunk and disorderly, not school or professional contacts. There are many ways to avoid looking pathetic and staying off of social networking sites is one of them.
Disclaimer: I don’t do Facebook or MySpace, so I may not be qualified to answer, but I’m not sure I agree that students have a defined and set apart “space”, at least not one that we should think of as permanently “theirs”. That’s a bit like saying email is only for people born after 1980, or that the telephone should be reserved for flappers!
While it’s true that youth tend to embrace new technologies and social relationships first, does that mean the rest of us should ghettoise our youth and leave innovation to them? Social networking, whether through software or anything else, is innovative also.
Do Libraries belong on MySpace? That’s a different question, and one that opens new considerations. Why do libraries want to inject themsleves in these places (like the Libraries and indeed universities that are now populating “Second Life”)? Is it because we can’t turn down a techno-trend? Even the most cat-loving, cardigan-wearing, crochet-happy librarian has never met a tech-trend she didn’t like. That’s why we’re all saddled with cases and cases full of microfilm we don’t (or in our case, because our reader-printer is broken) can’t use. Librarians like to jump on a bandwagon and we tend to leap before we look.
Librarians live in a terror that we will become irrelevant, which drives our trend-slavery. I think it’s right to say that patrons do (and should) determine our services, I’m not sure that it’s right to “go to the patron” in every case, especially where technology is concerned. The academy in general has carried on a love affair with technology for the past 40 years. Especially within the last decade we increasingly see technology, Messiah-like, as a Saviour to our problems of space, budget, distance ed, and relevance. But at what point does the technological tail begin to wag the academic dog?
I agree with Cody I really do not want to see pictures of my students at a party on Saturday night etc. I remember when I was in undergrad and a Prof. showed up at one of our parties and I was like EWWW! like Offspring said so many years ago “ you gotta keep it separated”
I am not against social networking sites far from it I used Linkedin and Goodreads on a regular basis, but I am against what Matt so eloquently called “trend-slavery”.
I also agree that we need to clearly identify why are we using “a such and such technology” does it actually support and increase our learning outcomes or are we obsessed with seeming cool? Or pretending that we are in line with the market?
Like I said if you are already using Web 2.0 by all means network away…I think this blind love of technology comes from people who do not use it on a regular basis. Anyone who is engaged with it knows that as everything else it is a mixed bag.
Instead of chasing trends why don’t we figure out what we do different than Google instead of trying to compete straight up. Silly but that is a whole other bag of worms
And this idea that Librarians should be cool _ I became a librarian to embrace my inner nerd!
Well, you won’t find me on MyFace or SpaceBook because of the data mining activities that go on. That aside, you’re spot on in sussing the appropriate niche of all your social networking examples.
It all seems very obvious to me as to what Marye says about librarians on facebook or myspace for that matter, until she told me there is an ongoing debate about the whole deal. I do have an account on facebook the “social networking site” otherwise not known as place where i can find sources for my russian literature paper! Myspace seems even more high school like for me. So for a library and librarians to be on myspace or facebook would only arouse the keen suspicions of Chris Hansen and dateline NBC(haha)
hmmm…
No librarians shouldn’t be on facebook or myspace institutionally, it seems vaguely lecherous.
I do think that, if they choose to be there for personal reasons, it might be nice to stumble upon a face of a librarian I knew every once in a while and see that they aren’t complete shut-in freaks and they have friends (other than cats) and a social life.