Week Two: Online Communities

I chose to explore facebook. I actually started using facebook this past summer - it took a long time for me to get on board (it just seemed like one more things I would have to "do" or "keep up with"). While I don't post that often, I do enjoy reading most of my "friends" posts. It is fun to see pictures and catch up with folks I haven't talked to in years. I think what I like most is reconnecting with old friends. For many years if a friend changed email or moved and didn't share their new addresses it could be impossible to track them down (especially when everyone has gone to cell phones - meaning unlisted phone numbers).

I think I will continue to use facebook in a limited way. Not as a way of networking with the greatest number of people I can (why does my sister-in-law's mother's brother want to be my friend?), but rather as a way to really connect and reconnect with good friends from my past and present (and future). I am a pretty private person and so far plan to use it is as a great way to quickly share pictures and information with many close friends without having to dig through my email contact list to send something. It seems to be a lot less time consuming way to spread information.

Which leads right to how I think our library could use facebook. With the number of people who are facebook users, it seems logical that if our library had a facebook page that people could join it would be one of the quickest ways to get information out to our library patrons. If we are closed for weather, what movie we will be showing this weekend, latest program we are offering, etc. The beauty is the post would simply appear in their feed and they would have the info - no need to come to our site (of course they would want to visit our website anyway :) ) to get the latest news. Any way to get current information out to our community is worth taking advantage of! I am sure there are many more advantages that I have just not thought of yet - if we try setting up a library facebook account it will be fun to see what happens.