Facebooking

tag=blogpost week 5

I have accounts on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, ReverbNation, and LinkedIn, but I only use Facebook with any regularity.  Since the inception of social media, I've always been a late adopter and have always been compelled by friends to set up a page.  I've never entered any of these sites with excitement or alacrity.  And it's always taken me a long time to comprehend the usefulness of these sites.  It was just this year (about 6 years after joining) that I started to understand the usefulness of Facebook.  Maybe it took a number of my friends moving out of state, but now I check the news feed as often as I check my email.  Mostly I see it as a great way to keep up with my friends, see what they are up to, and, very occasionally, comment or make a post.  I can count on both hands the number of times I've logged into any of the other social networking sites, and I've never used any of them for business.

This all makes me sound like a disengaged or disinterested observer.  However, I do think that libraries should have social networking presences.  When I think of the goals and purposes of libraries, I immediately begin to see possibilities for social networks that I don't always see for myself.  Libraries are communities (kind of in the way that people will insist that a church isn't a building, but people; I think we can think of libraries in a similar way: they can do little without their patrons).  The bigger their community, the bigger their impact.  Social networking sites can expand that impact so easily.  It's simple to set up an account, to update a page, and many patrons are already online.

If you couple that ready audience with useful services, the library may find their patronage rising.  Facebook can offer some wonderful services too.  With chat and messaging, the library can offer reference services.  Once they land in patrons' newsfeeds, libraries can push interesting, relevant links.  Libraries can post photos of successful programming.  Libraries can keep patrons up to date on upcoming programs -- even sending out invitations.  In their article, "Apps Integrate OPACs with Facebook", Michael Kelley and Meredith Schwart discuss ways to link library OPACs to Facebook pages; patrons can browse the catalog, put books on hold, and pay fines.  If a library can provide all these services on their Facebook page, they can make Facebook a one stop shop for online patrons.  I know that as the Internet grows, I find myself using fewer and fewer pages.  If libraries can link all of their services on the sites their patrons are already going to, they don't even need to entice them to their homepage.  If the Facebook page serves as more than just a portal leading to the libraries "real" website, if the library can serve all of their patrons needs on Facebook (or other social networking sites), then social networks can prove essential components in a library's Internet strategy.