Week Three: Social Networking

Part 1 - Facebook
Step 1
This step was easy for me! I've been using Facebook to help with activities in my student association. We have a Facebook group we use to invite connect with other members, publicize group events, and share newsworthy items.

Step 2
I'm already friends with several other members of my student association, and a few of my co-workers and colleagues, but I always like making new friends on Facebook. I 'friended' a few of the people in this class.

Step 3
I left a message on one of my colleague's wall thanking him for a link he sent to my del.icio.us account.

Step 4
I'm familiar with Facebook's 'events' application. I've even created events myself. I searched for and found MLA's Annual meeting and the Technology Trends meeting. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the conference this year. Maybe next year!

Step 5
I have a couple of library related applications on my Facebook page, but the UAB catalog isn't one of them. I found the application by searching the 'apps' for 'UAB catalog'. After I added the app to my page, I did a quick search for 'catheter'. The search opened a new Firefox tab with UAB's catalog and my search results. My search returned 46 hits, mostly books.

Step 6
Again, this step was easy! I already had both Pubmed applications 'Pubface' and 'Pubmed Search' added to my profile. I've tried them both out before, and they both do the same thing, returning search results in the same format. I think these applications are good for quick Pubmed searches, but are not real replacements for PubMed itself.

Step 7
I already had the WorldCat application added to my profile, and have tried it out. I think the 'suggested readings' feature is interesting, but not that helpful to me. This application is a lot like the Pubmed applications. Results are listed within Facebook, but you can click on individual search results which will open the homepage in a new Firefox tab (for me).

Part 2 - LinkedIn
Step 1
I joined LinkedIn a few months back as part of an assignment I completed for a class I was taking. It looks like it's a great application for building a network of colleagues both in your area and afar. It's also a good tool for employers who might want to supplement what they know of potential employees.

Step 2
I sent 'Connection' requests to a few people I knew from my student association and a few of my co-workers.

Discussion Points
I definitely prefer Facebook to MySpace. Facebook has a much cleaner interface, and is overall easier to navigate and search. The applications offered by Facebook make it a more versatile and relevant tool than MySpace. For me, I would consider MySpace to be more for personal use, where Facebook could definitely have professional applications. Developing a catalog application should be a must for any academic library. As librarians, increasingly we have to 'go where the users are'. I think Facebook's median user age is a little higher than MySpace's though, so I can understand why a Children's Librarian, or a Public Library, would choose MySpace over Facebook.

As with anything on the internet, security and privacy are a huge issue. There is no guarantee that anyone is who they say they are, and websites can't guarantee that the security measures they put in place will stop hackers from gaining access to personal information. Outsiders aren't the only threat. Facebook faced criticism last year for not allowing users to stop them from feeding their information to their advertising agency, Beacon. As long as we exercise caution and forethought when dealing with social networking sites, I think they can help us reach new users and connect with our colleagues.