10/11/2008

Social networking

Social networking is definitely a big part of many people's lives. I was interested when I followed the links to libraries that had FaceBook pages how little some of them seemed to be used, one library had less tha 100 friends, 2 others had more than a 1000, but the posts seemed to be sporadic and not that frequent at any time. A question to be answered "is this a fad, or is it becoming an established part of life"
There is definitely an opportunity for NSL to expand into this area, but as the articles all seem to say - if you don't do it well don't bother. One needs to understand why NSL would have a FaceBook or My Space presence. Presumably to reach that under 25 or so audience who live in this space. To be successful I believe we would need someone completely at home in the social network space to deliver the service, somebody that is likely to be under 25. Is an alternative to work with schools to deliver at least part of the service, link in with North Shore's NEAL network. Another thought is - have we missed the boat, I seem to hear that the use of FaceBook is slowing, are people abandoning this form of communication, or moving on to something else. It is an area that needs research and planning.
Lots of questions. NSL should have a new interactive website by early next year, this would be the opportunity to set up a FaceBook page. It is an area I am uncertain about, but I think with so many library staff completing web 2.0 training there will be lots of answers to the many questions.

1 comment:

Delicious said...

Hi,
Where to from here I wonder? Budget cutbacks, minimum staffing,etc. Maybe a new virtual library manager will be able to bring out the passion in those few under 25s in our system.