Social networks

Littérateur will now don her grumpy little old lady suit...

I know what social networking is about and I know a lot of our students and academic staff use these tools - what I don't know is why are we here?

Social networking is just that intended for just that - social purposes. Students use Facebook and Myspace to interact with their friends and classmates. Anecdotal and other evidence suggests the intrusion of others into their space can cause resentment or ridicule - an American college student recently described librarians in Facebook as "like a soccer mom wearing a Pikachu T-shirt". There was a considerable outcry when Facebook was made available to users outside of educational institutions.

Facebook precludes usage by institutions - so why would a group of librarians create a Facebook Group or Network and then hang about waiting for students to "friend" us. The even creepier alternative would be us trying to "friend" the students.

Another consideration is that many employers are now banning the use of Facebook including banks, television networks, councils, government departments and private enterprise. Why encourage students to use a resource for any library purpose which they will probably not be able to use once they gain employment?

I can not think of a single purpose that we could use social networks for that could not be met by web pages, CE6 or email/chat reference services.

Maybe I'm just not social...