"While the burgeoning trend in online social networks has gained much attention from the media, few studies in library science have yet to address the topic in depth. This article reports on a survey of 126 academic librarians concerning their perspectives toward Facebook.com, an online network for students. Findings suggest that librarians are overwhelmingly aware of the “Facebook phenomenon.” Those who are most enthusiastic about the potential of online social networking suggested ideas for using Facebook to promote library services and events. Few individuals reported problems or distractions as a result of patrons accessing Facebook in the library. When problems have arisen, strict regulation of access to the site seems unfavorable. While some librarians were excited about the possibilities of Facebook, the majority surveyed appeared to consider Facebook outside the purview of professional librarianship."
I'm always fascinated by the sometimes diametric opposition of librarian attitudes toward things like this to the attitudes of people outside academic librarianship.
2 comments:
I don't know that I'd go so far as to say "diametric opposition." Maybe it's more a matter of seeing Facebook as something only moderately relevant to their domain as academic librarians. I mean, let's face it, for all the hoopla about it, I doubt many students would get excited about exploring library services via the 'book. Sounds from the abstract as if those surveyed for this study were simply curious or at worst ambivalent about it than strongly opposed to it.
Yeah, that's true. However, if you look at the success of librarything.com and the large number of both general readers AND librarians who frequent the site and join the social networking groups, I'm not sure I would completely write off the possibility that a social networking aspect of library activities should be written off. The possibilities of using social networking, either via folksonomies (which several academic libraries have done), or through interactive and socially networked interfaces doesn't seem to me to be that far out. If Librarything could gain the popularity it did in just over a year, I can't help but wonder if it isn't just a matter of offering the services and interface that people want.
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