Facebook Apps and Libraries' Friendly Future

Slide 1: Facebook Apps & Libraries' Friendly Future Laurie Bridges & Cliff Landis

Slide 2: What is Facebook? "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you."

Slide 3: Facebook: Why should librarians care? • Popularity of the website • Serving generation Y (now and in the future) • Social aspects of information sharing • Organization of information • Outreach opportunities • Advertising opportunities • Virtual networking with librarians

Slide 4: It's Popular! • Facebook is the most popular website for young adults age 18-24. More popular than Google. (Anderson Analytics, 2007). Flickr: Laughing Squid

Slide 5: Top 10 Websites

Slide 6: Social Networking More Popular Among Women (18-24)

Slide 7: More Stats • Over 58 million active users and more than 1/2 of them return daily (Facebook, 2008) • 85% of college/university students have a Facebook account (Facebook, 2008) • Facebook is the 5th most popular website in the U.S. and 2nd in Canada (Alexa, March '08)

Slide 8: Social Networking and Teens • 55% of all teens, age 12-17, use online social networking sites (Pew/Internet, 2007) • For girls social networking sites are places to reinforce pre-existing friendships (Pew/Internet, 2007) • For boys social networking sites are places to maintain contact with friends and make new friends; older boys use social networking sites to flirt (Pew/Internet, 2007) flickr: Feuillu

Slide 9: Growth & Reach May 24 Sept. Feb. ‘04

Slide 10: Facebook Usage Average user spends 20 minutes per visit on Facebook (Facebook, 2008) Average user visits 32 pages per visit (Alexa, 2008) Flickr: gywst

Slide 11: Applications for Libraries • Notre Dame Library Search (2 active daily users) • WorldCat (47 daily active users) • JSTOR (20 daily active users)

Slide 12: Facebook Pages

Slide 13: Libraries and Pages - Hennepin • 183 Fans • Promoted on the catalog's blog and library website

Slide 14: Libraries and Pages - Aurora University • Charles B. Phillips Library • Over 120 Fans • Promotion: each new Fan entered to win two Phantom of the Opera Tickets

Slide 15: Facebook Pages Stats

Slide 16: Events (require collaboration)

Slide 17: Poke Me! http://flickr.com/photos/theyoungthousands/2225433234/

Slide 18: The Birth & Growth of Ideas http://flickr.com/photos/ko_an/35978155/

Slide 19: Back to the Future… http://flickr.com/photos/locusolus/2302863748/

Slide 20: Social Objects • Most viewed • Top rated • Most discussed • Most responded

Slide 21: The Proof is in the Pudding (and by “the Pudding”, I mean LibraryThing)

Slide 22: (…or AADL)

Slide 23: (…or WorldCat.org)

Slide 24: (…or Amazon…) Basically, lots of pudding, lots of proof.

Slide 25: Good grief, Cliff, where are you going with this? http://flickr.com/photos/b-tal/163450213/

Slide 26: Library catalogs are social networks for ideas.

Slide 27: Social Networks: 1.Profile 2.Friending 3.Public Comments --danah boyd

Slide 28: Ideas are social

Slide 30: The line between social space and intellectual space isn’t blurring… It was never there in the first place.

Slide 31: How do you see in-person social interaction in your libraries? --complaining about the printer --making out in the stacks --working in study groups --looking at MySpace profiles together --glaring at someone's cell phone going off (when it's annoying) --laughing at someone's cell phone going off (when it's a chicken) --getting help from a library worker --wayfinding together --meeting friends --checking out hotties

Slide 32: • How do we move beyond the old stereotypical librarian response? http://flickr.com/photos/tinfoilraccoon/68838264/

Slide 33: Please, think of the users… http://flickr.com/photos/megem519/821458301/

Slide 34: How to not be left behind… • talk to your users & find out what they want • use the tools that they are using • broadcast what you're doing • "earn your audience" http://flickr.com/photos/vermininc/2337307518/

Slide 35: Thanks! Cliff was able to present thanks to support received from The Center for Faculty Development and Research Development and Instruction Improvement, as well as a Library/MLIS Faculty Development Grant. w00t!

Slide 36: Questions for us? http://flickr.com/photos/-bast-/349497988/