Is Facebook Really the Way to Go?

US social networking websites are still an “in” thing. Not that I really was doubting. I live with two crazy facebook-ers.

MySpace is still the top social networking site with Facebook in second. However, facebook is gaining visitors and growing at a faster rate within the social networking arena. Americans are still spending a lot of time on these sites. Almost 190 million Americans visited social networking sites in the past year, an increase of six percent.

The time spent on Facebook has increased recently. Andrew Lipsman from ComScore contemplated if this could be due to the extra leisure time Americans may have during the summer. Lipsman said that “Leisure–oriented sites (gaming, social networking) sometimes have a tendency to see seasonal gains in the summer when people have more leisure time.”

Generally the article showed an extensive use of social networking sites with Orkut and Linkedin, two other social networking sites, showing great increase as well. Facebook in particular is gaining popularity.

Often in library school, we talk about how to reach various audiences and groups of people. We have talked more and more about the library being on Facebook or MySpace. Millions of people are on these sites and it seems to be a great way to reach people. But do people really want to “friend” their local public or academic library? And would this help students with library access?

I can’t help but wonder about this. Is the library a social entity that networks on a social networking site? For many libraries, the answer to this question is apparently yes. I don’t have a problem with libraries being on social networking sites, but I wonder if it is really helping libraries to reach those patrons who would not have already gone to the effort to use the library space or the library website.

In Iowa, Facebook is often the social networking site considered for such ventures. Also, social networking sites are often discussed in conjunction with academic libraries seeking to reach undergraduate students. A library having an account on Facebook could allow their patrons to search the catalog directly from the site. Or it could at least provide links to the catalog and databases the library has. But do Facebook users want to spend their time on Facebook at the library’s profile page?

I certainly don’t think that a library having an account with Facebook or MySpace or some other popular social networking site lacks benefits. But I do think that this opens up a great area for researching how library accounts with social networking sites are changing or aiding in library service.

Ante, Spencer. “New June ComScore Numbers Show Facebook Still Has the Mojo.” Business Week. (15 July 2008). 17 July 2008. <http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/07/new_june_comsco.html?campaign_id=rss_tech>