Libraries in Facebook?

"A big difference exists between being where our patrons are and being useful to our patrons where they are. A profile should be designed to offer something to patrons, so they will keep coming back to it." - Farkas, 2007, 122

While I have not owned a MySpace page or interacted much with it as a social networking tool, I do have a Facebook account and use it every so often in order to keep in touch with school friends. While libraries may seem out of place on Facebook, a place for individuals to meet one another and keep track of what their friends are up to, I believe that libraries do in fact fit in to this new and constantly evolving world of Facebook.

Because Facebook is a social networking website, it can work off the theory that "one person's connections to other people are more important than the person's attributes. Following this logic, people can be judged, for better or worse, by their friends and acquaintances" (Farkas, 2007, 110). Being able to make these connections between individuals, libraries can also work off this relationship by making its presence known and reaching out to individuals through services and event announcements. I believe a library that does reach out to its patrons through Facebook not only provides an opportunity to understand their patrons' wants and needs (through their likes/dislikes) but also provides a location for patrons to give feedback to the library or request certain items for the collection.

While Facebook is starting to lean the way of Twitter with profile "status" notifications and the news-ticker "Feed" page, I do not believe keeping track of patrons' statuses will be a time-worthy method of discovering what is important to patrons. Instead, noting their favourite activities or events that they did participate in could be one method. Another would be to, after creating a sufficient "fan base," to make a status announcement asking "What would you like to see the library doing" while providing context, such as teen events, adult events, etc. Patrons could respond through comments in order to provide their own feedback. This sort of response of course requires patrons believing that their feedback will be studied and, possibly, applied.

A library Facebook page could also provide after-the-fact coverage of events, such as a status announcement of the event photograph album being uploaded. This would provide a location for patrons to view photographs of themselves that they did not take and perhaps tag themselves in the photographs and provide feedback through comments. If patrons could also upload their own photographs or send them to the library Facebook page through a message, it would also show that the librarian in charge is interested in what patrons have to offer while also having a chance to filter possibly questionable photographs. This retrospective coverage also provides advertising for the next event of a similar nature.

A library with a strong presence on Facebook requires patron interaction, or else a Facebook profile will simply sit and blare announcements to the librarian making the posts. The same amount of marketing that librarians devote to promoting events and services needs to also be applied to the library's Facebook page, whether it is the form of bookmarks in holds, an announcement on the website, or posters in the teen areas. However, once the Facebook page is working and patrons regularly check and provide feedback on the announcements, it can be a great aid to library outreach and marketing.

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Farkas, M. G. (2007). Social software in libraries: Building collaboration, communication, and community online. New Jersey: Information Today, Inc.