Facebook Apps and Libraries' Friendly Future

Facebook Apps & Libraries' Friendly Future Laurie Bridges & Cliff Landis

What is Facebook?

"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you."

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

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

Top 10 Websites

Social Networking More Popular Among Women (18-24)

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)

More Stats

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

Growth & Reach May 24 Sept. Feb. ‘04

Facebook Usage

Average user spends 20 minutes per visit on Facebook (Facebook, 2008) Average user visits 32 pages per visit (Alexa, 2008)

Flickr : gywst

Applications for Libraries

Notre Dame Library Search (2 active daily users)

WorldCat (47 daily active users)

JSTOR (20 daily active users)

Facebook Pages

Libraries and Pages - Hennepin

183 Fans

Promoted on the catalog's blog and library website

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

Facebook Pages Stats

Events (require collaboration)

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

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

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

Social Objects

Most viewed

Most discussed

Top rated

Most responded

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

(…or AADL)

(…or WorldCat.org)

Basically, lots of pudding, lots of proof.

(…or Amazon…)

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

Library catalogs are social networks

for ideas .

Social Networks:

Profile

Friending

Public Comments

--danah boyd

Ideas are social

The line between social space and intellectual space isn’t blurring…

It was never there in the first place.

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

How do we move beyond the old stereotypical librarian response?

http://flickr.com/photos/tinfoilraccoon/68838264/

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

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/

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.