LIS 9763

I think that the biggest reason for libraries to be aware of and be active in social networking was reported just this Monday.  On Monday, Nielsen Online reported that blogs and social networking are consuming more online time than checking and writing personal email.  Ok, this does not have to be a large deal, but it does show that there is a large amount of people participating in social networking.  This environment is also free and fairly easy for libraries to insert themselves into as show by our case studies.  Social networking sites such as Facebook and myspace more than just new environments for libraries to market themselves in, but also provide a way for customers to interact with the library, either through postings or through online chat opportunities.  Also, it provides a very useful listing of people that can receive personal invitations or notices from the library.  In a way, it is like a radio or TV ad but directed towards the people that have the greatest chance at acting on your information.

Sure social networking might be scary for libraries because they are not able to control all the information on their site, but that is one of the points of Web 2.0 and the move to a more dynamic and connected Internet, to trust others and to accept input with an open mind.  Put the library out there and see what happens, you might be praised or you might be criticize but both of these communications are opportunities for the library to grow and adapt to their community.  Libraries should allow their community to comment and help build their library to what they need and participating in Web 2.0 is one way to be there for your users.  It will be difficult to let go of some of that control, but otherwise people will continue to find other sources to fill their information needs.

I’m also reading GrownUp Digital by Don Tapscott which is discussing the upcoming changes in families, workplaces, and education due to the large group of Net Generation (or Millennials or Gen Y).  In the US this generation is actually larger than the Baby Boomers (27% vs. 23%).  This leads directly to this posting  on how libraries are adjusting to this generation of users.  Libraries are becoming more active and pushing their services to customers while customers are becoming more passive (like it or not).  The Net Gen (I prefer this term) “are used to receiving information quickly from multiple sources and like process it immediately and have little tolerance for delays and expect speed from the Web. Older workers would rather receive information linearly, think about, digest it and have more patience when dealing with the Web and technology.”  To provide service to this generation, libraries meet them where they are and one of the places they are is on social networking sites such as Facebook and myspace.