When will the madness end? Now the myspace buzz is out, facebook is in. I even saw a mashup [can't find it again!] that proclaimed facebook the genius brainchild of social networking systems, and myspace the red-headed step-child who scrubs the floors. Okay, maybe it wasn't really that bad, but it was pretty brutal. And I'm supposed to give a conference presentation about how helpful myspace can be for libraries? I'm going to have to dig pretty hard for that one. Yikes!
There have been many times in my life where I was vulnerable. Dictionary.com defines this as, "(of a person) in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect." Synonyms are: helpless, defenseless, powerless, impotent, weak, susceptible. During those times, my community was also small; sometimes, it was only my small family and maybe a co-worker, or a church. As a single mom, an injured returned Peace Corps volunteer with no home or job, and also as a child, I have known vulnerability. By United States definitions, I grew up in poverty. We utilized government assistance, the help and goodwill of grandparents, and community non-profit clothing and toy closets, especially around the holidays. I really appreciated what we had. My four siblings and I rarely enjoyed food from restaurants, never went on vacations, and looked forward to grandma taking us back to school shopping for clothes, and the Indian commodity supplies...
Comments
MySpace- spam, rear ends in my face, owned by a corporation that has very little integrity for expressing the truth.
I know we librarians are supposed to be neutral, but all those factors are why I enjoy Facebook and could care less about MySpace.
Reagrding user outreach, a comment was made by Marshall Breeding of Vanderbilt University that most students use these sites for the social aspect. Perhaps we should focus more on instant messaging reference service and creating programs that get the kids in the library?!
Our patrons really use MySpace more than any other social networking site, including older folks, and the ability to imbed music and videos is just really alluring, I have to admit.
We've been doing A LOT of programming to get kids and adults into the library. I can't even keep up with all the stuff, but what I have posted is on a wiki that Meredith Farkas created that can be found here.
Facebook has been blocking entities, such as libraries, from creating profiles, because they want us to be a "group," which seems less effective, but ??? who knows
Nice to see you're still blogging, too!
I presented at COIL conference in July, held at NSU-BA. Doc Martens was there, she talked about our class; that was really neat. It was a great networking and professional experience.
Sorry my response is so late, I haven't had much time for blogging lately!