And was I enlightened!
I think I had a touch of the problem that Beth Evans explains about in the Library Journal... "librarians are suffering from “paralysis by analysis,” refusing to move forward into new ventures because they are overthinking"... yuck, that doesn't sound hopeful does it. I hope to never, EVER, overthink again.
Well, maybe I'm not all that bad. But what I did learn in this process is how effective a library presence could be in the world of mostly 16-25 yr olds as they brand themselves with social tattoos and broadcast on their online billboards.
Yes definitely, there's a place for public libraries in the social networking scene. Yes definitely, there's a way to stuff it up dismally. But yes, there's also a way to do it right. We need to ask ourselves as a corporate body - have we got the dedication of staff, management, time? Have we got the intellect to carry our profile beyond just 'being there and looking good'? Have we got the smarts to move with the online ocean? Let's find the VALUE that Meredith Farkas blogs at length about. Let's know all the W's first: Why are doing it; Who for; What value will our profile bring (to profile users and us); and then all the Which's and What's.
Yes, I say, let's do a Facebook or MySpace library profile.
And yes please, let's do it right.
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