Posted by jfobert on January 28, 2008
I signed up recently for a facebook account and found it to be an entertaining social site. I am on the University’s recycling committee which is student run and they have a group on facebook which I joined. I also found some interesting library applications. I found a link to the worldcat Application for facebook which I think would be very useful to have on a page. The link is http://apps.facebook.com/worldcat/
People have been suggesting that the future of the public face of our catalogs may be Worldcat. It really works nicely.
There is a great article by Cliff Landis called Social Networking Sites (College & Research Libraries News; Dec2007, Vol. 68 Issue 11, p709-712, 4p) which discusses myspace, facebook etc being used by libraries.
I also saw the link to UIUC Library Search which is a federated search. I wish we would have federated searching at my library as it would be very beneficial for our users. I would imagine that these applications being in facebook meet the patrons where they are. In the case of many students, facebook seems to be an on-line community where the library can reach out to people. Facebook does give students an easy link to the library homepage.
Still I need some practice to get accustomed to the site. I find the many invitations to quizzes and mini feeds distracting.
