Digitalist life in the library

Things 13 & 14 – Social networking

• Thing 13: Write about how libraries can use different features of Facebook to connect with their users.
• Thing 14: Explore and sign up for LinkedIn.

I have been a member of Facebook for a good few years now and find it helps me keep up with friends and family who I don't see on a regular basis. What I like about it is probably what everyone else hates - I like hearing about the minutiae of my friends lives because that's the stuff that often gets forgotten in a phone call or email. I could do without Farmville though.

The Sainsbury Library has had a Facebook page for around 6 months now and we have a modest number of fans - the current count is 66. For me the main reason for setting up the page was that prior to this all information about the library was hosted on the Saïd Business School intranet which meant that we had no public presence on the web other than the basic information provided on the OULS and School websites. Thankfully this is no longer the case and we have a much better presence on the newly designed Saïd Business School website.

I have been reading a lot of posts by 23 Things participants that can't get over the idea that social media profiles for libraries come hand in hand with duplication of content and effort. I want to dispel this myth....

I really don't think it matters if content is duplicated across multiple sites. The first point of contact with your library is not necessarily going to be the same for everyone - some users might pitch up on your doorstep, some might land on your website, others might find you via a profile on Facebook or Twitter - as a result the library needs to provide at least the same basic information everywhere.

As for duplication of effort, it is so easy these days to connect different social media accounts so that you can post one update that will then be posted on all of your profiles. This is made even more easy with the use of RSS feeds - a prime example of this in practice is from our very own Vere Harmsworth Library who use their blog to feed information to their website and Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Wow, I never knew I felt so strongly about Facebook. This leaves me only just enough breath to say that I have also joined LinkedIn and have created what is at present a very basic profile. I do plan to explore this further at a later date and add a bit more meat to the bones.