MySpace is fun; I like Facebook better...
I already have both a MySpace and Facebook account (you can add me if you want). Originally, I set up the MySpace because I had a friend in a band that was using MySpace as a way to market and network his band. I'm also a musician, and have found that MySpace is a great way to find other musicians in the area. I set up the Facebook account because I was curious, and then realized that many of my colleagues were members. I remember really appreciating the built-in networking structure in Facebook. Basically, they used to only let you be a member if you were already a part of a network. You used your campus email to join up, and you were automatically added to the college or university's network. Now, (obviously) Facebook is open to anyone.
I think I started this exercise a little too late to really do what I would have liked on a library MySpace profile. I forgot how much time it takes to set up a profile! Here's my page for a fake library MySpace. I know that our students and other users of Facebook and MySpace will spend hours getting their profiles just right, and as a professional level entity, it would be important for a library to make sure that they are setting up a professional looking profile with a good organizational structure.
What drives me nuts about some of my friends' profiles in MySpace is how cluttered their layouts look because of all their embedded videos and widgets. Perhaps it is just a personal preference on my part, or maybe it's a result of the few design-type courses I've taken, but I think layouts should look clean. The background should not be distracting, and all the font needs to be clearly visible because most fonts in the background are important links to other places in MySpace. Most of the library examples we looked at take these things into consideration.
If your videos are too big, then they stretch the layout so that some of the components are not visible anymore within the constraints of the computer monitor. I did embed one video on my page, and made it smaller. That worked out nicely. If people want to look at the big version, they can click on the video and (I think) it should take them to the actual version on the YouTube site. I also noticed that large files on a MySpace page cause it to load slowly. In general, I've also noticed that sometimes MySpace can be difficult to access when the site experiences a high volume of traffic.
I think for an academic setting, specifically for colleges and universities, Facebook might be the better option. I have a personal account, and while I don't have that many friends from the University, there are quite a few students who have added me as a friend. I actually had one instance where someone on campus came and physically found me in the library as a result of my status on Facebook at the time, which probably said something to the effect of, "I'm at the library." Again, I just use my Facebook account as a personal account, but at the same time, I'm very cognizant of the fact that I have many student and professional contacts. MySpace for me is the "fun" account, but I actually like Facebook better, and have experienced a higher level of professional networking through it.
