Aaron Schmidt

feels like Munch’s scream about MySpace and doesn’t have an account himself, but doesn’t think that means libraries shouldn’t be there
confusing interface, lots of ads

showed Thomas Ford ML MySpace account
Denver PL’s eVolver site – has a song, looks like a teen’s site
UIUC Undergraduate Library
Liberty Librarian – used to be a school MySpace account, but now all of the references to the school are gone

showed user-generated videos about MySpace
teaching each other the bad side of MySpace

– teach a “MySpace tips and tricks” class
– classes for parents, educate them about it and how to guide their kids
– historic figure/book character project as a MySpace page where the students add the content

make friends

bulletins are very effective marketing

tips:
– be authentic; let your teens be your voice
– give up control
– have fun
– consider who want to be
– include a song and video
– include a MeeboMe widget

MySpace in your library – is it banned in your institution?

statistics show you are in more danger at home than on MySpace
most horror stories are false reports

is it a fad? yes, but it’s part of a larger trend

showed MyOwnCafe from the Southeastern Massachussetts Library System

Cliff Vandis – Valdosta State University

YouTubed the audience

what are the questions we should be asking?
– what is the nature of this technology?
– how are my patrons using this technology?
– how can I use this technology to benefit my patrons? (traditional services, innovative services)
– how will this technology improve my service?
– how should we identify ourselves?

“Identity Performance” – profiles (dynamic and static)

Social networking – connections between individuals create a network (Vizster)
“she’s my friendster, but not my friend”

Groups and identity
– 4th Floor Odum Library Bathroom Users (active)
– Odum Library Is Only Good for One Thing and that Thing Is Facebook (group identity; he joined to see what they were saying about the library)
– I Like to Hang Out in the Library After Hours (failed group identity; only one person in the group, so it’s a failure)

some people join a group just to be identified with that group, not to be an active contributor

– image representation
– one-on-one communication (preferred over email for this group of people)
– communication in groups
– writing on walls (communicate with the whole community)
– sharing pictures
– linking to other social networks and websites

can buy “flyers” – ads along the side for marketing

reference
– consultations
– groups
marketing
instruction

innovative uses
– acquisitions (students letting the library know what books they’d like the library to buy – within facebook, where they already are)
– “ubiquitous librarianship” (using a student’s public information (blog) to meet their information needs (Brian Mathews)

how will facebook improve my service?
– the user-centric approach
 – Karen Schneider’s “The User Is Not Broken” (JL: yay!)

noted libraries that put themselves in facebook and had them taken down because they were institutional

started a global “ask-a-librarian” group
– folks will message him by the discussion board
– or they’ll write a question on the wall
system acts like a knowledge base, so can see answers to previous questions

how do we represent ourselves? especially as “the library”
– the living library (Kresge Library and Tisch Library have great descriptions of themselves)
– the librarian collective (UIUC Undergraduate Library)

recommends if you’re going to start now, do it as an individual, not your institution, since they are shutting down institutional accounts
it’s not a bad thing to be a human being; can bridge the librarian anxiety gap

what if your identity is chosen for you?
– “I be on my cell phone in the library” and “hide and seek in Odum Library” groups
– student who started a profile of Brown Library but isn’t affiliated with it

who “owns” the library?
– we think of it as “mine” since we work there
– university sees it as “mine” because is part of the institution
– students think of it as “mine” because designed for their use

take the compliment and work with the students to get the word out about the library

(JL: during the presentation I requested to be friends with Cliff in Facebook. When I logged in, I saw that David Free’s birthday is tomorrow, so I sent him a message within Facebook, and he responded during Cliff’s presentation.  :-)  )

audience question: how choose between the two?
Aaron: was based on age, although Facebook just opened up to everyone
Cliff: don’t have to choose just one, but we chose Facebook because we know it’s an audience we have

MySpace IM is broken a lot; they know a lot of people who use Meebo or other chat aggregation programs
can’t add things to Facebook like you can to MySpace
MySpace is highly editable, usually for the bad, whereas you can’t change anything about Facebook

audience question: confidentiality of patron questions in Facebook ask-a-librarian group?
Cliff: users are aware in that setting that their questions are open to the whole group

il2006