Help! The library is poking me!

There is a lot of talk these days about social networking. I will be the first to admit that my usage of facebook borders on pathological (if I disappear one of these days, you'll know I've been sent to social networking detox). However, I was, until very recently, not aware of any sort of "issue" surrounding libraries and social networking. If you had asked me what kinds of challenges librarians faced regarding social networking, the only thing I could have imagined there being was whether to allow people to use social networking tools in libraries.

However, the more I delve into librarianship as a career, the more my view is shifting. Instead of seeing facebook, youtube, twitter and the like as the massive time-suck it is for me, many librarians are looking at how we can use these resources to further the mission of the library.

What I have seen in reference to these websites, for the most part, is suggestions about how they can be used by the library as a new way to communicate with patrons. This is a generally good idea, but I think that these tools can be used for far more. Setting up a presence on facebook is not a pointless endeavor. It is easy and requires only a minor time commitment. However, what I see as the real potential in social networking tools and web 2.0 lies more in how it could be used for library programs.

Given the idea of the library as a place that brings people together in order to share information, ideas and experiences, it makes a lot of sense to use social media. Maybe library patrons could be encouraged to contribute to a library-sponsored blog or message board, writing book reviews or sharing creative writing they have written. Another possibility would be to get people involved in a project that involves recording video and producing shorts to be posted on youtube. There is certainly a lot of potential.