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Socializing in the 21 st Century . Presented by Heather Huey, NJIT Library, Newark NJ. Who’s on myspace?. Is anyone here on myspace or facebook? MYSPACE- Musicians first. Now, filmmakers, authors, librarians because they could reach their audiences. Who do you think these users are?.
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Socializing in the 21st Century Presented by Heather Huey, NJIT Library, Newark NJ
Who’s on myspace? • Is anyone here on myspace or facebook? MYSPACE- Musicians first. • Now, filmmakers, authors, librarians because they could reach their audiences. Who do you think these users are?
Teens? • 55% of online teens have created a profile • 48% of teens visit social networking websites daily or more often • 26% visit once a day • 22% visit several times a day. • Lenhart, Amanda and Mary Madden. “Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. January 7, 2007. Available May 18, 2007 at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdf
Age Demographics “More than Half of MySpace Visitors are Now Age 35 or Older, as the Site’s Demographic Composition Continues to Shift.” Comscore Press Release. October 5, 2006. Available on May 20, 2007 at http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1019
“More than Half of MySpace Visitors are Now Age 35 or Older, as the Site’s Demographic Composition Continues to Shift.” Comscore Press Release. October 5, 2006. Available on May 20, 2007 at http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1019
Who’s on Facebook? • 85% of college students are on Facebook. • Librarians, Professors, Staff
Myspace does not have a built in network like facebook. View all 3137 Current Students
What do people do there? • Create Profiles Individual user profiles: can establish for a library and/or individual librarians • Participate in Groups Can be started by anyone and for any purpose: pre-existing college-specific groups and subgroups • Share Myspace: Bulletins & Event Announcements, Blogs Facebook: Notes, Posted Items, Status Updates, etc
People make plans, publicly through comments. For example: me
Just like myspace makes this musician contactable and friendable… Myspace can do the same thing for a library.
On Myspace, one can only use Bulletins, but here on facebook, they have Notes and Posted Items (for links and photos).
Tagging – unlike folksnomy tagging in facebook refers to photos
Value of Facebook & Myspace • Personalize & promote libraries & librarians • Facilitate & extend opportunities to communicate, collaborate, and learn in virtual spaces that students utilize for play and school • Interact with students in their natural environment • Using more human/approachable identities to distance learning students. (Charnigo)
Facebook Librarians are everywhere • “Walking around my library, I realized many students were using Facebook while they were researching. Having this group in Facebook allows them to get help at their point of need in a user interface that they are already familiar with. • In addition, the group message board retains questions & answers, allowing students to find answers to common questions.” (Landis) • Landis, Cliff. “Connecting to Users with Facebook.” Georgia Library Quarterly Winter 2007.
Faculty involvement • “It really helps break down barriers between students and faculty.” – University of Iowa Senior, Lindsay Schutte • “Posting a profile on thefacebook.com takes two minutes, but it sends a message that you are part of the same academic community as the students.” Yale Professor of Philosophy, Tony Cross (Duboff) • Duboff, Josh. “’Poke’ your prof: faculty discovers thefacebook.com. Yale Daily News March 24, 2005. Available May 10, 2007 at http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/13706?
An Opportunity for Librarians • An intriguing opportunity to directly market more than 75% of my target audience. • Potential Target of incoming freshmen & graduate students. (Matthews 306) Matthews, Brian S. (2006). “Do you Facebook? Networking with Students Online.” College & Research Libraries News 67(5):306-307. My dream for Facebook – More Academic Collaboration
New Roving Librarian? • “Rather than waiting for students to approach us, it is perhaps more beneficial to be proactive and approach them. By using online social networks, librarians can increase campus visibility and update the stereotypical image, but most importantly, we can let students know what the library is really all about.” (Matthews, 307) Matthews, Brian S. (2006). “Do you Facebook? Networking with Students Online.” College & Research Libraries News 67(5):306-307.
Building Community • Using free services such as Myspace & Facebook is free yet can greatly increase the connections to users of the library. • These modern methods of community building are the ways students today are meeting, communicating, and building community. (Shier)
The urls will change but the behavior will stay the same.These tools may be temporary fads, but the underlying idea will most likely be permanent--people want to connect virtually just as they do physically.
What do you want the Library’s role to be? What role will the library serve in these environments might largely depend on whether librarians are proactive and experimental with this type of technology or whether they dismiss it as pure recreation. (Charnigo)
Why librarians should care • Emerging technologies for communications should provoke, at the very least, an interest in, and knowledge of their presence among library and information science professionals. (Charnigo).
Email is a chore • Some students don’t use email. They communicate via IM, text messages, phone, and facebook. If the library is where they are at, are they more likely to contact us, to think about contacting us? • If they read our myspace bulletin or facebook note announcing how to use a database or that we have later hours, are they more likely to use our services?
Positive Uses of Social Networking. (YASLA) • Youth participation (have them make your myspace page!) • Can one have an online social network without reading & writing? • Networking with authors • Educating Parents http://teentechweek.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/myspaceforparents_booklet.pdf • YASLA http://www.leonline.com/yalsa/positive_uses.pdf
How can you use MySpace or Facebook to benefit students or patrons? • You can offer reference services • Market the library with photos, event announcements, myspace bulletins, facebook notes, and flyers (paid advertisements targeted at your group's users) • Use these tools as a venue for instruction (using groups or linking to traditional instructional resources). • Solicit for library suggestions • Using the information in a student's profile to meet their information needs • Allow a place for users to comment about the library. Allow both positive and negative comments. • Answer Reference Questions publicly. • Join & Create Educational groups, class groups, for presence and to answer questions.
MySpace & Facebook Links http://www.myspace.com/askalibrarianfl http://www.myspace.com/brooklyncollegelibrary http://www.myspace.com/nfpl http://www.myspace.com/njitlibrary Search for us on Facebook as “Robert Van Houten.” Search for me as “Heather Huey”
Charnigo, L., & Barnett-Ellis, P. (2007, March). Checking Out Facebook.com: The Impact of a Digital Trend on Academic Libraries. Information Technology & Libraries, 26(1), 23-34. • Duboff, Josh. “’Poke’ your prof: faculty discovers thefacebook.com. Yale Daily News March 24, 2005. Available May 10, 2007 at http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/13706? • Evans, Beth. (2006). YourSpace or MySpace? NetConnet 10.15.06 Accessible May 10, 2007 at http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6375465.html • Landis, Cliff. (2007) “Connecting to Users with Facebook.” Georgia Library Quarterly43(4), 6. • Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary . “Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. January 7, 2007. Available May 18, 2007 at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdf • Liu, Mingyang. (2005) “Would you ‘friend’ your professors?” The Duke Chronicle 2.25.05. Accessible May 10, 2007 at http://www.dukechronicle.com/. • Matthews, Brian S. (2006). “Do you Facebook? Networking with Students Online.” College & Research Libraries News 67(5):306-307. • “More than Half of MySpace Visitors are Now Age 35 or Older, as the Site’s Demographic Composition Continues to Shift.” Comscore Press Release. October 5, 2006. Available on May 20, 2007 at http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1019 • Shier, Maria Tess. (2005) “The Way Technology Changes How we do what we do.” New Directions for Student Services 112: 77-87. • Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Social Networking and DOPA. LEO: Librarians & Educators Online. Available May 18, 2007 at http://www.leonline.com/yalsa/positive_uses.pdf/