Libraries and Social Networks

UnionBook.
The social networking site for trade unionists.

Social Networks can serve any number of different functions, both for individuals as well as for organizations and groups. Recently some of the larger online social networking sites have seen a dramatic rise in the number of contributing and participating corporations. ...Libraries have been finding a place for themselves on a variety of social networks. Libraries are often the center of a physical community. They serve as a gathering place for community members to share ideas, make plans and generally enjoy the company of others. Many libraries have taken this role into the virtual world and are building a place for themselves in any number of the rapidly expanding online social networks. Libraries are using social networks ...to strengthen and reinforce their real world presence.

Social networks are also providing libraries an avenue for expanding the services they provide. The library web site has and often still is an online island on which any number of services may be accessed, but without connections to the rest of the online world. Libraries are beginning to use social networks not just as tools to inform or facilitate community gathering and communication, but as means of providing basic library services, bridging the gap between the island that was the library website and the rest of the virtual world.

LIS 757: Social Software & Libraries (We have chosen the following networks to evaluate: MySpace, Multiply, Digg, Facebook, Faceparty, Secondlife, Plentyoffish, and Sharepoint.)