NCompass Live: Putting Facebook To Work For Your Library

PUTTING FACEBOOK TO WORK FOR YOUR LIBRARY By Susan Franklin Public Services Librarian Hastings College Perkins Library NCompass Live, 25 March 2009

WHAT IS FACEBOOK? AND WHO USES IT?
“ Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections.”
Facebook’s mission is “to make the world more open and connected” (Facebook Pages, February 2009)
Over 175 million active users (ages 13 - ??)
(www.facebook.com/home.php)

FACEBOOK IS OFFICIALLY A POP CULTURE ICON
Everyone is abuzz with Facebook!
Applications and Memes (such as the much-copied “25 Things”) and known even to unFacebookers.
Facebook makes news on a regular basis.
Ex. Entertainment Weekly ’s barometer of pop culture news that made the week (called “The Bullseye”) listed “Fearing Facebook’s latest redesign” as a “Near Miss” on March 20, 2009.

ACCORDING TO PETER CORBETT’S “2009 FACEBOOK DEMOGRAPHICS AND STATISTICS REPORT: 276% GROWTH IN 35-54 YEAR OLD USERS”:
The 35-54 year old demographic grew 276.4% in six months!
The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate.
The 25-34 year population on Facebook is doubling every six months.
GUESS WHAT?
 Facebook is where your users are!

BRIEF (SORT OF) HISTORY OF FACEBOOK
Facebook “born.” Harvard only. Profile = directory (name, contact info, picture, interests). Work-intensive (had to visit friends’ profiles to see updates).
Facebook available to professionals, students from other colleges, even high school students.
“ News Feed” added, which highlighted friend information (most recent and most relevant content) on your own homepage.
Term “social graph” was coined to describe how Facebook “maps out” people’s connections (remember that these connections exist in the real world…all Facebook does is map them out).
Facebook redesign made Wall the central focus: “this was a big step in the direction of helping people share immediate experiences with one another: a thought, a status, a photo, a note, a feeling.” Companies, government entities, organizations, etc. are encouraged to join Facebook.
The old adage about “shift happens”? Well, Facebook underwent another redesign just a few weeks ago (March 11)! Layout and emphasis are “streamed.” Public figure/celebrity/organizational profiles look, act, and display content more like personal ones.
??????? Your guess is as good as mine!
(Timeline adapted from “Share and Connect” by Mark Zuckerberg, March 4, 2009)

VALUE OF WEB-BASED SOCIAL NETWORKING
Web-Based Sites (such as Facebook) allow you to:
Create/translate your personal or institutional “self” to an online presence /entity.
Make connections to family, friends, colleagues, patrons and others based on existing (real world) contacts.
Base connections on similar interests , activities , hobbies, groups, etc.
Share content and interact (comment, contribute, etc.) with your connections.

TECH GURU DAVID LEE KING PREDICTS (3/14/2009) :
[Effective] Social networks will someday be like air [integrated seamlessly into our lives].
Three things are needed to make social networks like air:
1. identity - who you are
2. contacts – who you know
3. activities – what you do
Facebook is one way to experiment with integrating social networks into your library. And it’s as easy as King’s 1- 2 - 3!

1. IDENTITY: WHO YOU ARE
“ Facebook is a customizable presence for an organization, product or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users” (Facebook Pages, February 2009)
Translate the essence of your library , of who you are , into a Facebook Page that speaks volumes about your:
* Information
* Users/Fans
* Events
* Photos & Video
* Wall
* Updates

GROUP V. PAGE: RETRO-FACEBOOKING
I Recline on Couches, Living on Coffee & JSTOR: Friends of Perkins Library
is a “group page” because Facebook was anti-institutional/anti-organizational when Perkins Library started its presence in 2007.
We contemplated switching…but the disadvantages (migrating, making members re-join a Page, losses in functions, etc.) seemed too large so we decided “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  [This may change…the abilities/enhancements of the new, new Pages may make it worthwhile to change.]

GROUP V. PAGE
Basic & Contact Info
Officers
Members
Events
Discussion Board
Wall
Photos
Links
Video
All of the Group Features, but no Officers and Fans instead of Members. Enhanced ease for creating invites, sending out bulk messages, “advertising” your logo, etc.
Fans become “brand advocates.” Posts/Status Updates, etc. appear in Fans’ News Feeds, looking and acting like individual profiles.
Insights Tool provides statistics to measure interaction by tracking comments on posts, # of users viewing posts, etc.
Group: “I Recline on Couches…”
Page Grewcock Library

IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE A FACEBOOK PRESENCE FOR YOUR LIBRARY… CREATE A PAGE. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A FACEBOOK PRESENCE… WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS OF ABANDONING YOUR GROUP PAGE FOR A PAGE.

2. CONTACTS: WHO YOU KNOW
We started with 2 members (both staff) and have grown to all-but-one staff member + 325 other members). How? By hook, crook, coercion…any way we can get them, including:
Facebook badges on our webpage
Word of Mouth
Computer Lab Signage
Library literature/brochures/flyers/training handouts
Colleagues on campus, statewide, and nationally
Personal Friends & Family
Student Assistants & Library Groupies (yes, we have them!)
Media Outlets (HC Announcements, Collegian , HCTV, Radio)
Professional Associations/Entities (HC Broncos, Back Alley Bakery)

3. ACTIVITIES: WHAT YOU DO
Here is where the “true value” of Facebook resides!
Facebook gives you one more “place” to carry out the core activities you already do: programming, services (such as reference), library instruction, PR/visibility, connecting with patrons, etc.

ACTIVITIES: WHAT WE DO ON FACEBOOK

INFORM AND ANNOUNCE
Information
Hours
Breaks
Contests
Special Events

EVENTS & RSVPS
Banned Books
Three Cs of Halloween
Gingerbread Decorating
Event
YouTube Contest for National Library Week
Creating events allows you to spread the word very easily. Create an invite, send it to members (and others), get RSVPs and garner participation, even if remotely.

REFERENCE & READER’S ADVISORY
IM
Messaging
Messaging/Inbox
Instant Messaging (in Facebook)
Quick, easy, point-of-need
ex. Out of paper in printer, difficulty in database or with ebooks

NETWORK, COLLABORATE, PROF. CONNECTIONS
Campus
Local
Regional
Statewide
Nationally
Groups
Collaboration
Staff, faculty, even HC Broncos as friends
Local librarians (Linda G, that’s you!)
Nebraska Regional Library System librarians and members
Other Nebraska colleges and libraries (Dana, UNL, Wesleyan, etc.)
NLC
National Library contacts
Interest Groups (ACRL, Intellectual Freedom, etc.)
Entertaining Groups (Reading Is Sexy)
Instructive Groups (Library Secrets)
ALA EL Team D, NLA/NEMA Presentation Collaborations

CONNECT & DIALOGUE
Visible to students, staff, faculty
Comments
Feedback
Wall
Inbox/ Messaging/ IM
Stay in touch with FES, our students abroad, alums
Thanks for the hot cocoa! It was amazing and wonderful!!! I had four cups!
Wow, I wish Hastings and North Platte were closer so I could have decorated and consumed Gingerbread men & women. I noticed from the pictures that there were definitely both sexes involved!
I am SO PROUD of the library people! Getting done with my work today, it was a delight to see all that was done with the edible banned books! I miss Perkins Library, but it seems that the rebel heart that fills the place is still beating fast. Good for you!
Even though I currently make my living at another library, Perkins will forever claim my deepest loyalties!

INSTRUCTION / LIBRARY SKILLS
Applications / Boxes
CiteMe
WorldCat
JSTOR
Tips & Tricks
Add the CiteMe app in facebook and "Get formatted citations from the world's largest library catalog, WorldCat." Select the documentation style (APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, Turabian) and let the citing begin!
Add the WorldCat application to your facebook page and you will be able to search the entire collections of libraries worldwide, create personalized lists, review items, and share your faves, all without ever leaving facebook! If you have questions about how this application will be useful to you or how to add it, please let us know!
Adding the JSTOR application in facebook will let you seamlessly move between social networking and researching for that Poli Sci or History paper that's due soon!

PUBLICITY & TELLING YOUR STORY
Photos
Displays
Notes

1 + 2 + 3 =

MAKE FACEBOOK WORK FOR YOUR LIBRARY
It’s one more place we can connect with each other and our patrons
Experiment, adapt, adjust, explore how to use it for your benefit.
Even if it doesn’t have exactly what you want, it’s a worthwhile endeavor. Plus, just wait a month…Facebook will likely keep on changing as its participants keep molding what they want the tool to be.
Use it to inform, invite, announce, instruct, network, connect, document, engage, publicize, communicate…the possibilities are exciting!

TIPS FOR ADOPTING FACEBOOK
Research
Be dynamic
Use a photo that puts a “face” on your library
Have fun!
Adapt.
Know when to cut bait.
Adapted from “Ten Social Networking Tips for Libraries” by the Librarian in Black

QUESTIONS? Susan Franklin [email_address] 402.461.7411 Hope to see you on Facebook soon!

NCompass Live: Putting Facebook To Work For Your Library

by Nebraska Library Commission

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