Social Networking and libraries

Social networking sites, of whatever flavour, are insanely popular. Libraries (and everyone else, it seems) want to capitalize on that popularity or somehow harness the community's enthusiasm and direct a little of it their own way. The problem is that people have a hard time coming up with ways to do this effectively. Many of the traditional functions of a library do not translate well into the new medium. For instance, providing a forum for members of the community to post reference questions does not make a lot of sense. These needs are already met elsewhere in ways that make more sense. And coming from the other direction presents a complimentary problem. The functions and philosophies of social networking sites were not made with the library's traditional missions in mind. So while the library could "Throw a sheep" at patrons, share lists of its hobbies and favorite music, or play some of the asinine integrated games with the public, most of what these sites focus on is of dubious value to our core missions.

I do believe that there are a few applications in which this natural incompatibility can be resolved. For instance, FVRL's "one minute critic" program where staff and others are encouraged to post short reviews of books they've enjoyed on YouTube. This provides a potentially changing and interesting source of content that can be tied into a library MySpace account. Social networking sites do provide a good platform for tying together disparate sources of content such as this in one place. With enough such projects going on in the wired world, a social networking site might find a place.

That being said, it should be noted that many of the people that use these types of sites will likely be people already highly involved with one or more library groups. For instance, our teen group, YAAB, takes advantage of social networking sites to put some of their activities on the web. This is great and probably adds to their experience and relationship with the library, but unless people outside of the YAAB group itself are also being drawn in and using the site, the intended goal of harnessing the popularity of these services to bring our service to a greater portion of the community is not really being reached.

Finally, it should be noted that we don't have the resources to maintain a presence on every social networking site out there. If we choose MySpace, does that mean we alienate the Facebookers and Second Lifers? Probably not, but we're still choosing an allegiance and should be aware of that.

In summary, I begrudgingly admit that there may be a place for the library in the world of social networks, but I maintain that we're groping in the dark. That place has not really been carved out yet, and I don't think it's going to be coming in the most obvious guises. Some of us will see what the future holds, but first some of us have to make it.