MySpace at MyLibrary

Every day at my library at least half of all the students I see on computers are on MySpace - in fact, there are some times when I have to be "mean" librarian and tell people who are checking their MySpace account to get off computers when there are students who need to use them for school work (the students are great about this though, they understand they don't have priority when only surfing MySpace). We are currently in the process of moving around our teaching lab so that we can see all the student's screens because we have found that they are even on MySpace during instructions sessions (surprise surprise) - so finding a way to use MySpace in my library is something I am very interested in.

One of my friends on MySpace is the Perry Castaneda Library at UT Austin ( www.myspace.com/utlibraries ) - so far this is the only library I have friended, but I like the way they are actively using MySpace to promote the library and give their patrons useful information. I get regular bulletins from them about study breaks, classes, hours etc. On their page they have a calendar of events, how to find movies music and books, and recent purchases. I would love to set up an account for my library that we could advertise through our library home page - and we could tell students and staff about it in our IL classes. Maybe this would be another layer of communication for our patrons who may be more interested in communicating through an online social networking service rather than the more traditional reference desk interaction.

Establishing a point of contact for the public through MySpace is a great tactic - because, of course, it allows for patrons to comment and interact with the library in a way that they already do with their own group of friends online. But the key, as Meredith points out, is not to set up an account to "be cool" - but to make sure the account is useful to patrons. Making it relevant is the most important thing, it allows for the possibilites to be opened up for both the patrons and the employees of the libary.