Social networking sites

It is interesting to see that diverse groups are using Facebook, MySpace, BeBo and other such free tools to promote themselves and connect with clients and each other. I liked the map from LeMonde which showed graphically which countries prefer which sites. You need to be a member to add comments to communities like ALIA's Beyond the Hype 2008: Web 2.0. So there is some ability to prevent undesired elements accessing your site. Still, I wonder how you could protect yourself as a Facebook member from people who wanted to be your friend but who you didn't want to meet or make friends with. Also, I think that although social networking sites are free to set up they would require regular maintenance which would cost staff time. This is all new to me still and I'm sure I have a lot to find out about it.

The Coshocton Public Library's Animanga Club MySpace page has photos of teen members. I think such clubs could be a good use of social networking sites for a public library. However I'm not sure whether posting photos of minors on them would be against child protection legislation or whether it is a good practice. My library doesn't post publicize photos of minors.

The American Library Association's MySpace site has good promotional posters - I felt like downloading and printing them. The Rotorua Public Library's site had links to videos and photos of events. I think this could be a good way of promoting my library's events such as writer talks, and inviting comments from "friends". I was interested to read in the NewsGrist article that an artist became a "friend" of a museum's social networking site and it could help her promote her own artwork through a link to her site. (http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2007/10/up-close-person.html)

The UK local government Communities of Practice site could be applicable in Australia. Such a site in Australian local government or Australian libraries could be useful if it targets a specific interest group, eg. local history.

I feel I have learnt a huge amount from the Library 2.0 course and am eager to explore applications I knew little or nothing about before I started it. Thank you to all Public Library Services team members for your helpful feedback during the course. Although I have reached the end of the course now I feel I have made a new professional beginning in discovering blogging and its applications.