Start Social Networking with Libraries and Librarians @ Facebook!

My latest foray into the Web 2.0 world is that of Facebook! Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to connect with friends and like-minded colleagues. While it is fun to connect with old friends, Facebook is also a wonderful medium for networking with other library professionals, authors, and library organizations. You can use Facebook as part of your personal learning network as well as a tool to reach out to your patrons.

Facebook provides you a “wall” in which you can post a wide range of content from a text post to a favorite YouTube video. You can also program your account to import from your favorite RSS feeds, including blogs and del.icio.us, as well as your Flickr photo updates. You can integrate your other Web 2.0 tools into Facebook, such as programming your Twitter account to update your “status” by importing your Tweets; you can also add your favorite Slide and Picture Trail slideshows to your profile in Facebook! The wall also reflects updates and activity, such as when you join a group, make a new friend, or upload content.

What kinds of library things have I done in this area of my personal learning network? In addition to befriending several other librarians and YA authors, I have done the following in two weeks:

Applications

• Added the Books iRead application—this is an application that allows you to list, rate, and write reviews for books you have read; you can also browse what other iReaders are reading and reviewing!
• Added the Facebook Visual Bookshelf Application
• World Cat
• SlideShare

Fans
I have become a fan of over 60 individuals / groups/organizations; I can follow updates to these entities through my Facebook account! I am a fan of many groups, including:

• Smithsonian Institution
• Atlanta History Center
• Mississippi State University Libraries
• Folger Shakespeare Library
• Internet Public Library
• Reference Department – University of Georgia Libraries
• Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
• The British Library
• School Library Journal
• Wikispaces
• The 2.0 Librarian
• ALA Library
• YALSA
• PBS
• NexGen Librarians
• YALSA
• ISTE
• The National Archives
• Mitali Perkins
• readergirlz
• Sarah Dessen
• Meg Cabot
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• NoodleTools
• Library Journal
• Library Thing
• Mississippi State University Libraries
• Belmont High School Library

Groups

I have joined over 30 groups, including:

• Evergreen “Open-ILS” Automated Library System

• American Association of School Librarians

• Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change Learning

• MS Library 2.0 Summit

• Librarians and Web 2.0

• FacebookLibrarians@ ALA

• FacebookAppsForLibraries

• Librarians and Facebook

• NextGen Librarians

• Libraries and Librarians

• Classroom 2.0

I also have created a page for my media center, The Unquiet Library! Patrons can become fans and follow the latest updates!

The Unquiet Library: Creekview High School Media Center | Facebook via kwout

Facebook provides me the perfect space in my Web 2.0 world to integrate my favorite Web 2.0 tools while networking and connecting with other professionals. I can seamlessly keep up with my colleagues and my favorite libraries and library organizations! Rather than being “another thing to keep up with”, Facebook provide me a fun, free, and fast means for integrating many of my social networks into one platform.

If you would like to know more about ways that librarians and libraries can use Facebook, check out some of my favorite resources via http://delicious.com/theunquietlibrary/facebook. I would like to encourage you to give Facebook a try and see how this social network can enhance your personal learning network!

Buffy Hamilton, Media Specialist
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com
https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com