→ Where to find an expensive out of print book? Mefites insist on the libray and ILL. And maybe a copy machine.

→ A literal facebook? Book bound in human skin.

→ Keeping wary eye on Web comments: at Paly, editing for civility is (darn) hard

→ Why You Can’t Get Your Hands On A Wii

Out of all social software sites I think I’ve learned the most from Flickr. I’ve also spent the most time using Flickr, likely because it solves a problem or fills a need for me. It is a fantastic social creative outlet. Wanting to learn more about Facebook, I’ve been investing more effort in it.

This afternoon I friended one of my employees.

I thought connecting with some of my staff on Facebook would not only be fun but would also be an exercise in transparency. My Facebook profile might give them a more full picture of who I am, what I do, and what I’m into. If they were at all curious. It wasn’t until I made the friends request that I remembered that transparency works both ways and that Adam, perhaps, wouldn’t be comfortable with me being in his Facebook network even though we get along really well face to face.

It turns out that he accepted the request. No surprise there, right? I called Adam as the library was closing, told him what I was thinking about and that I might blog about it. I asked him if he had any reactions to my request, and that if he thought it was weird he should be totally honest. It also turns out that he doesn’t really use Facebook and this informed his reaction to my request. Since there’s nothing really at stake for him, my friending him isn’t extremely relevant. One social software site I know he uses is goodreads. I should ask him how his answer might change if we were talking about that site instead of Facebook. Or maybe he’ll tell us in a comment.

Considering these issues tonight I’ve come up with a few tips for Facebooking (or using other social software sites) among library staff, particularly for supervisor to staff situations.

→ Ask first and state your intentions up front.
Is it for a library project? If so, is it mandatory? If it is, give employees the chance to make a special account for the project because they have the right to keep their private life private And their work life private. Is it just for fun? Being upfront about this, and not being selective about invites, will prevent awkwardness and potentially creepy situations.

→ Make it clear if Facebook (or whatever) is “work”.
Clearly most library workers have other things to do besides be on social networking sites (SNS) all day. However, encouraging library staff to play, have fun and experiment should included SNS. Especially if it is something you started!

→ Try new sites.
If a coworker thinks you’ll enjoy a site that you’re not using, give it a whirl. Explore how it might relate to library services and have a conversation. Be honest if you don’t like it too.

Putting some effort into SNS *does* lead to learning, eh? One little friending and I’ve got all this great stuff to think about!

→ Facebook music app will integrate with iTunes

→ Latest on the gPhone from the NYT
Maybe we’ll see it later this year, and for purchase next. They’re not making hardware, only an OS.

→ Churches are using Halo 3 as a loss leader to get kids in the door.
Reminder: when libraries host gaming events, they’re not necessarily doing it (just) to get people in the door. Games are content just like a mystery novel is content. And for now, we’re (at least partially) in the business of providing content.

→ A bookcase that converts into a bed.

UPDATE: Jennifer Peters-Lise of the Seneca College Libraries wrote in to tell me that the Facebook ban in Ontario has trickled down to the city of Toronto.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that towards the end of April I was up in Vancouver, BC giving a talk about social networking sites in the context of intellectual freedom. Since then, my great guide to Vancouver, Heather DeForest, and now another Canadian librarian have emailed about a Facebook controversy going on in Ontario. Shannon LaBelle sums it up well so I’m just going to publish part of her email here!

Last week, Facebook was blocked on Ontario government computers. Here’s the story that appeared in the online edition of the Globe and Mail about it on May 3, 2007:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070503.wfaceboo0503/
BNStory/Technology/

Interestingly, shortly after the blocking was reported, the Globe and Mail had a story about how Canadian Members of Parliament in the federal government are using Facebook to connect with their constituents:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070503.wl_facebook0504/
BNStory/Technology

Today, Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, shared his comments on this issue on his blog:

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1925/135

There seems to be a disconnect similar to the one going on in the head of Illinois Senator Matt Murphy (R).

Thanks for the heads up, ladies!

Yesterday I gave a Education Institute webinar titled Facebook and MySpace: Pros and Cons for Libraries. Here’s a big honkin’ (10MB) pdf of my slides.

http://www.walkingpaper.org/ei.pdf

One of the questions that came up during the Q&A session was about curricular uses of MySpace (particularly in a high school setting) in which students can remain anonymous.

The basic idea is to have students use MySpace as a tool to get their content on the web. In doing so, they can create profiles for many other things besides themselves. Here are some ideas:

• Characters from a novel, or different novels. Blog posts and listing “likes and dislikes” must be made in the voice of the characters, and the characters must interact through comments. Maybe even dialog from the book should be expressed in the students own language.
• A historical figure. Same deal applies.
• Elements of the periodic table. Get creative with listing body type and the “About” section.
• Math equations. Students must use the blog posts to help teach others about the equation. When completed, the class will have created an online reference source.
• Same goes for parts of speech, vocabulary words, inventions, etc.

Do teachers ask students to do similar projects on paper? You bet. Might students forget the fact that their doing *school work* when completing projects framed in a social networking setting? I think there’s a pretty good chance. Some students might not care if their teacher thinks they’re slacking, but when their online reputations are at stake they might step it up. I’m sure they’d like to link to the funny and useful profile of the quadratic equation that they created.

Tomorrow’s Soaring to Excellence program - Best New Technologies: Keeping Up with the Storm - is going to be a solid program. I’ll post some sweet video once I have access to it. Brian Mathews is joining us via telephone for a portion of the program and said something great during rehearsal. In regards to social software sites being fads, he responded:

“The URLs will change, but the behavior will continue.”

Well said! He also mentioned that he recently asked Mike Murphy, the Chief Revenue Officer of Facebook about the deletions of library Facebook accounts. Murphy said he didn’t know why that happened and would get back to him. We’ll see.