Thing 19: Other Social Networks

I liked the article Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library by Steve Campion, he writes about some of the real problems we encounter in our system. We can create new content using the Web 2.0 the tools but getting the attention the appropriate administrators is very difficult. Since we are understaffed, everything extra we do comes out of our own time. If administration is not willing to grant us a few extra hours a month to create and update content, it is not to our advantage to add extra services, like Web 2.0 services. If we proceed and create new services on our own time, then in a few months it is interpreted as already a part of our job duties. It is a real Catch-22 in a system where libraries are tcurrently near he bottom of the priorities for services because of serious, system-wide budget constraints.

If I were to create a profile for career purposes based on what I saw in this exercise I would choose Ning. I am in fact planning on setting up an account during the summer when my work schedule is not as intense. I take my presence on the web seriously. It is my face to the world and I wish to spend time designing my site content before I get started. Thanks for alerting me to Ning. I did not know about Ning before the 23 Things.

Gather was very interesting and I am intending pursue it also because we have several students who are writers. I am thinking of developing something describing Gather to distribute to our English faculty and they will then further disperse the information out to students. In addition, I am planning on developing information to readily hand to students who come to reference desk and identify themselves as present or future writers. I did not know about Gather either before the 23 Things.

I believe that these are the social networks for our library to explore rather than Facebook and MySpace. Thanks again !!!!