Social networking

Well after creating a blog, posting to Flickr and Wikiing, it's time to investigate our virtual presences out there in the electronic world. Whether or not we choose to post a virtual presence for ourselves out there or not, it's absolutely amazing how and how much further we can spread our virtual wings.If we wish we can tweet in twitter, share our lives through blogs, Myspace and Facebook. You can chat, share photos, favourite music, recipes, jokes, puns, wisdom and/or idiocy. There does not appear to be one thing people are too shy to put out there in the virtual world. One can't but wonder if people would behave the same way in the physical world as in their virtual electronic world. Would these people be as brave in person? Would these people be as vicious in person? Does the virtual world remove them or separate them from the emotional, physical and social affects of their actions?Does the virtual world of cyberspace give people a freedom they do not have in the actual physical world of their lives. Some people appear to have no scruples at all about the way they behave. Or, perhaps and this is scary, they actually don't have scruples because they don't feel the need. An example of the adverse effects of social networking is that the virtual world and blogging appear to be tools enabling bullying, in addition to mobile phones and email.We in Libraries are using social networking to create a greater connectivity with those of our clients such as the generations X, Y and Z, the cyberspacers. We have had to venture beyond the website, because technology creates great possibilites to interact with our clients, it enables greater connectivity. Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook can give the Library and library professionals a presence in the same electronic universe as our clients, people who ‘live’ in the cyberspace, digital or electronic world (pick your favourite) as well as the physical mundane world..

Using an Opac is not enough, the social networking world gives us a much greater reach into the world of cyberspacers. Yahoo! Cooee! We're here!! Come and see us! We're a cool place to be, to visit, we have games, dvds... We'll help you find your family... we'll help you with that resume, we’re able to .. We must advertise, market and put our brand out there. We must have a place and exist in both the physical and virtual world, because our clients do so.

Our website is already a super blog, we can create interest by sending out Twitters, electronic feelers about what we have and are able to do, send out instant electronic messages to advertise and market the library and ourselves, it's events, it's services, it's activities and capabilities. Social networking is a research tool of endless capability, if there's a question we can't answer a question, we can send out electronic feelers to the cyberspacers out there to get an answer. Cooee! Come and see us now!!!