Meredith Farkas begins her discussion of online communities by pointing out that libraries have always been more than a simple repository of books and journals, they have also been places where the community can come together and thrive. Consequently, it is no surprise that libraries are reaching out to place themselves squarely in the communities of the 21st century—sites like Flickr and Facebook.
Most of what I have found on Flickr from libraries, has been a celebration of library buildings, employees, and the community. While there has been some controversy concerning libraries posting pictures of their patrons online (and perhaps violating their privacy), many libraries continue to post pictures of special events or the average workday at the library. Examples of this include San Jose State photos from Banned Book Week and the A Day in the Life of Iowa Libraries.
Libraries are also establishing profile pages on Facebook and MySpace. Sometimes these pages are simple sites meant to spread info about the library and gather users (or fans) in one place. Other library pages are more complex, with the ability to do worldcat searches through Facebook. Additionally, certain libraries have developed applications that users can add to their profile, allowing them to search the library directly through Facebook. The University of Oregon Library is one example of this.
Librarians are starting to come together in the social networking sites as well. Facebook, Ning, and WebJunction are just a few places where librarians gather to share information and learn from each other. Farkas also talks about Listservs as a way for librarians to network. Even with all the bells and whistles on Facebook and other sites, I still see more activity on Listservs (or yahoo and google groups) than I do on many of these newer social network sites. Over the course of this week I have been wondering why that is. Perhaps it is because posts on Listservs are pushed to a member’s email account. Perhaps people still like the relative anonymity of an email as opposed to a message board post with their picture and profile attached. Yet, as a younger generation of librarians enters the librarian social circle, perhaps these listservs will be replaced by more dynamic web based social networking sites. Only time will tell.
