Libraries & Social Networks

Social networks appear to be a good opportunity for people to get connections and perhaps make more friends. Having a look at the "myspace" library web pages for a few American libraries makes me think that myspace & other social networking sites are definitely an extroverts tool. Before having a look at these library myspace web sites I must admit that I thought myspace was a tool for individuals only. For individuals, myspace is a great way to promote yourself. For example an authors myspace web page could have a blurb about the author, a photo, contact details, a list of interests, links to their blog entries, sound & video clips (from YouTube of course!) as well as comments from their "friends". So it appears from looking at this that sites such as myspace are a useful mesh of many different "web 2" technologies. Libraries then can use myspace to mesh these technologies together also. While it is possible to add these technologies to a blog, using a web site such as myspace is a viable alternative. Some people may say "well so what, most of the stuff that you can do on myspace you can do on your own web site". And that may be a valid point, however there is a consistency to the way information is displayed on myspace between different users, whereas with an organisations own website, the look is going to be a lot different.
Personally, I don't have a problem with libraries joining myspace. Good luck to them I say. I think it's just another tool of communication that is available. And if a library has the time and resources to allocate towards getting a myspace profile they may as well go for it.

Do I think that Sutherland should have a myspace profile? Not..... yet. Looking at other myspace profiles for libraries, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of time and effort needs to be put into creating a myspace profile. And then it needs to be maintained. It's no good creating a profile and then never logging in ever again! Even if you had one person willing to create it, they cannot maintain it all by themselves- what about when they go on holiday. So the idea would definitely need some discussion at least. If Sutherland were to have a myspace profile then I would suggest us taking an idea or two from the other libraries that have myspace profiles and aim to friend some Australian authors. This shouldn't be too hard as at least once a year there is an author talk held at Sutherland library. Of course it should also include links to the blog. I think that the best thing that I have seen a library do on myspace is include a "Library Search" dialog box on the page. Quite neat.