Join WMLA on FaceBook

The Western Massachusetts Library Advocates (WMLA) has a new FaceBook page!  (Thank you Betty Purington Johnson!)  It's a great way to stay current on events and news from WMLA.  Like us - we're hoping to have over 100 friends by Friday, November 30.  Share information about your libraries and check it for updates as we move into our primary legislative season.
You can also take a look at our background information, our projects, and membership information on the WMLA website.

Fanbase to the Rescue

Our own Eric Poulin of Greenfield Community College has had an essay published in American Libraries, May/June 2011 issue. It talks about how the We Love Western Mass. Libraries Facebook page rallied us all around the cause of attempting to keep our own WMRLS in operation.

Web 2.0 Week at WMRLS ~ Today: Facebook

Wikipedia defines Facebook as "...a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves."

Karen Demers, Adult Services Librarian, Wilbraham Public Library says "We are fairly new to using this, but we use it as another way to promote Library Events.  Our profile was originally created by our former Teen Librarian, so our first batch of fans had been mostly high school students."

Friends of WMRLS facebook page

Hi all:
The Friends of WMRLS has a brand new Facebook page. So far, even though its existence has not yet been published, we have 11 fans! Why don't you become a fan, too. So far, the Friends of CMRLS has 31 fans. Let's see if we can beat them! All in fun of course. ;-)

Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whately-MA/Friends-of-WMRLS/98164952633?ref=s

Please post to the page. The Friends will be posting events as they happen, information on upcoming Friends' meetings and the like. Add what you would like to see on the page.

If you see something on the page that should be there that I've forgotten please post that so I can add/fix, etc.

And -- most importantly, thanks to Janet Eckert for formatting the Friends' logo and to Julie Bartlett for figuring out what I did wrong and fixing it!

Facebook Social Networking Software ~ An MLA Report

facebook logo

Originally uploaded by AJC1

On Friday, May 8, I attended MLA hoping to learn more about the many uses of Web 2.0 tools and applications; specifically the Facebook social networking site … and the MLA Annual Conference delivered!

Below is a brief summary that highlights my Facebook education by attending 21 Examples of 21st Century Libraries, the Do-It-Yourself Series: Session II, and Social Software and Intellectual Freedom.

The Good:
Facebook is where it’s at! Libraries should have a goal of becoming its users’ Third Place ~ (First Place being Home and Second Place being Work and/or School). Both the library building and its virtual space should be warm, welcoming, and located in a highly accessible place. According to Andy Kazeniac in Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs published on February 9, 2009, Facebook had 1,191,373,339 visits in January, 2009 – becoming the Number 1 Social Networking site. A Library Facebook page is most definitely in a highly accessible online "place".

Great for Library PR! A Library Facebook page is a great way to promote library services and programs.

Facebook is easy. While you do have to open a Facebook Account (which I consider The Bad ~ see below). A library Facebook Page is fun and easy to create.

The Bad:

Privacy: Libraries embrace the users right to privacy. When patrons sign up for a library card, they can be confident that their information will not be shared. Can Facebook (and other social network sites) make the same promise? To view a library’s Facebook page, the user is required to register for a Facebook Account. Should the library, by hosting a Facebook page, be endorsing one social networking site over another?

Recommend:

Develop a Library Social Networking Policy ~ Examples (though a little dated) can be found on the website, What I Learned Today … Social Software Policies.

Sincerely, Janet Eckert, WMRLS