Penguin Library
Apologies for not doing this sooner seeing as I'm one of those people that have had a MySpace and Facebook for years, but mono is not a fun! Anyways, since this clearly cannot be a real library and I used penguins the last time, I present Penguin Library's MySpace Page. MySpace is the more flexible of the two, but Facebook is nice in that you know what you're more or less going to. It's neat, orderly, and well a bit sanitary. MySpace offers personalizing the space with colors and graphics. The flip side is that sometimes people come off as too loud. As my boyfriend once exclaimed "Someone had to work to make something that ugly?!" Yes, yes. I cringe. It does what it was meant for though. You're sticking it to the Man or Woman or whatever because this is your space that you can decorate however you please. You could also make your own website, but that's besides the point.
You can make a decent page in a short time if you know enough CSS. I didn't really remember much, so I cheated and looked up some codes online. Really, personalizing for libraries since you generally don't want to offend someone is about picking a background and maybe some colors for the links then dropping in some music. It's there to display your personality and to network with other people. While Facebook has all sorts of fun little widgets for you to play with, not too many adults actively sit and do such inane things. At least with MySpace they have an instant messenger and all or you've got bazillions of friends that need comments or surveys to fill out.
Checking out other library groups, I've noticed that they're either very much into letting their teens get a hold of what the page looks like or it's someone's cracked idea that the library needs a MySpace without first defining an actual need to do so. Really, it's new and nifty, but it should serve some purpose. Letting the teens edit the page is actually really cool if you can find teens willing to do it. They generally don't look too professional, but then again, it's MySpace. The only real drawback would be the need to constantly monitor what's going on just in case something that could blemish your library doesn't end up all over the MySpace.
When it comes down to it, I think MySpace has a better chance of surviving than Facebook merely because it offers the things people want while Facebook restricts everything to the point where you question who's compiling this neat directory of names, numbers and addresses and for what purpose. I'm not fond of either tool, but when it comes down to it, I'd check MySpace over Facebook.
