How do you use myspace?

If you guys can keep your excitement contained, we have a a whole week devoted to social netoworking, Week4. If you can not wait, then start reading some of the readings for that week. Do not worry. There will be time to explore each new thing. Each topic and week has both a "what is this?" presentation and a "what do you do with it" presentation as well.

Does that relieve some of your wonderings?

My sense is that these are "presence" tools. You use them sort of like bookmobiles in face-to-face-space; they're places where you can go out to where your patrons are and be an ambassador for your library's content and services.

Now, you wouldn't park your bookmobile in the middle of nowhere -- no point. So you don't want to establish a library space at a social networking tool that your patrons aren't using. The trick is to figure out which ones they are using in sufficient numbers to make a library presence desirable.

I've just skimmed the surface of a complicated question, but perhaps that will spur some thoughts from others.

Hi Ellie. I wrote a post on this subject last May, which you can find here. In it, I talk about how people are using Facebook and MySpace profiles as two-way communications mechanisms and as a portal (where our students are) to library services. I list some examples of excellent uses of the profile to provide outreach in MySpace and Facebook. Since you won't be able to see the Crossett Library's Facebook profile, here's a link to a post where I provide a screenshot of it.