Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

I joined Facebook. Sort of scary to be out there!

I found some other librarians, and some other friends that have "real" accounts. I found one friend via her email who has an account under a fake name, so I didn't "friend" her since she seems to want anonymity. I joined a couple of groups: 23 Things on a Stick, and Librarians Using Facebook. Apparently this is different from a network (Mpls/St Paul). I couldn't find some people at first that I knew were on there, but I think it was because I hadn't joined a network yet?

I would believe it may be the fastest growing social network. My high school neice has hundreds of friends on there, and she said that's how everyone is sending out graduation party invites. It seems like that's also the way gossip is spread and feelings are hurt etc. As an adult, I feel silly being on there.

It's cool that the public libraries have MySpace pages, but even better if they offer a portal to resources and act as an extention of the library web page. I think a lot of them accomplish just that.