Method 8

9.The final part of this exercise is to write about this experience in your blog. (Please include “Method 8″ in the title of your post.) Consider some of these questions as you reflect on this two-stepping method: How do you feel about social networking sites in general? Do you have privacy concerns and/or concerns about keeping your personal life separate from your professional life in the online environment? Is your library already using some of these social networking tools and if not, do you see potential uses for any of these tools in your library? Finally, if you created a MySpace or Facebook profile and you don’t mind sharing it with everyone, include a link to it from your blog post.

I started using Facebook in the years it was available to college students only. I didn't think it was particularly interesting at that point, so I quit using it after a few short weeks. It was only about a year ago that I was able to reset my password and regain entry into my original profile. I found out that Facebook had changed considerably since I first logged on in college. I recall very little activity on the site in the early years, but by the time I started up again, it seemed that everything was different. Now, there is always activity on the site and it seems like everyone I know has a page.

I honestly resisted the use of MySpace and Facebook at first. I wasn't compelled to share my every moment with people and thought it was a little intrusive regarding privacy issues. I was also a little frustrated with the site, because when I needed a computer to write a paper or to study at the college library, I could never find one. People were using the majority of their time online updating their status or checking what their friends were doing instead of working on their schoolwork.

In the past year, since I started using Facebook again, I'm still not exactly enamoured with it. It's an interesting way to keep up with friends and to share daily happenings, but I don't use it as frequently or with as much intensity as many other people my age.

However, I do see the value of something like Facebook. There are many people who do use it as a way to find out what's happening with their friends, in pop culture, in the world, in their own city. And they use it on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly. Since so many people do use Facebook and Myspace to keep up with their lives, it can become a good place for libraries to be. It is a good way to keep people updated on what's going on at the library. It can be used to promote the library and what it has to offer. It can be used to interact with patrons and to find out their thoughts on the library.

The library system I work for does use social networking tools like Facebook to reach out to the general public.