Facebook in libraries

I admit to being behind the times when it comes to Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and other social networking sites. I became interested when a colleague of mine gave a presentation at the Manitoba Libraries Conference earlier this month. [Note to Mark: I'm still awaiting that podcast!] It was one of those instances that you hear about something and then every time you turn around it's there. So when I tumbled across the article "Checking Out Facebook.com: The impact of a Digital trend on Academic Libraries" by Laurie Charnigo (Information Technology & Libraries; Mar 2007, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p23-34) I thought "I have to read this article". Like a lot of early adopters I had already leaped before I read this article. I had created a profile on Facebook and was eagerly seeking out old colleagues and friends to see if they were there. A surprising number are which leads me to believe that I am totally out of the loop! Back to the article... Charnigo discusses her study done in the US which was "designed to target three areas of inquiry: awareness of Facebook, practical impact of the site on library services, and perspectives of librarians toward online social networks."(pg 27) In a nutshell, according to the results of this study "[t]he overwhelming majority of librarians were aware of Facebook's existence".(pg 27) Which confirms that I am totally out of the loop. The discussion of the practical impact of the site refers to the technological impact of the site on library services such as "an increase in bandwidth, library traffic, and noise, or in use of public-access computers, scanners, or other equipment" (pg 28). The results showed minimal impact. Being a totally practical person I wanted to know from this article how I could use this software in my library, so I was particularly interested in the next section revealing librarians perspectives on this software. I didn't get much information about the practical application of Facebook in libraries but I did get a sense that librarians were interested in building a community with their students... where their students congregated and using Facebook as a marketing tool. Uses brought up in the article include: - Communication tool for student collaboration - building rapport with students - virtual extension of the campus (bringing in distance ed students) - fostering collegial bonds - using it to promote library services -- advertising library events -- study groups -- book clubs -- marketing libraries (any ideas how?) I really recommend reading this article as it gives you an idea of what issues are faced in libraries with social networking software.