Facebook

I think that library Facebook pages have huge potential as an outreach tool to share news and promote library services to students. Large numbers of students have Facebook accounts, and I think it makes sense to appeal to users in a space they are familiar with and spend a lot of time in! (In this way I think Facebook has much more scope than Twitter as a means of communicating with students). Looking at the Cambridge library Facebook pages that exist, and seeing the number of 'fans' they have, shows just how useful they can be, and I was impressed by how much can be incorporated into the Page. The posts that can be written on the wall are perfect for sharing pieces of news, posting links to interesting news and information, promoting new resources, displays and exhibitions, talks and workshops, and notifying users to changes in opening times and vacation due dates etc. I'm also impressed by the number of library-related applications that are now available, for example the Cambridge Libraries Widget, COPAC, WorldCat and JSTOR searches, the possibility of incorporating other Things such as Delicious bookmarks and Flickr photostreams (I love that it's possible to bring things together into one place!) I also like the look of Bookshare, and adding book cover images of items the Library holds.

I found it very interesting reading about the differences between a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group, and have given my vote to the Fan Page. This has much more scope for adding the extra apps and it is possible to get visitor statistics for the Fan Page (extremely useful for seeing how many people are actually visiting the Page, and may help in evaluating how useful the Page is). Fan Pages are also indexed which means they are visible to people not registered with Facebook, which increases their potential audience. I also discovered that updates can be sent to Fans via an easily missed updates folder within the messages section of the site. Unfortunately no indication is given that you have updates in your folder (unlike email notifications for messages), so on investigating my folder I found a large number of updates, much to my surprise!

My main concern about Facebook library pages is how much users will actually look at them. I think users would quite happily become fans of their library's page, but it's unlikely to be a page they would visit daily/regularly. In my experience, new additions/content to Fan Pages are rarely displayed on the newsfeed on the Homepage, so would it be best to write an update to Fans everytime something important/interesting is posted on the page to alert them to it (I don't think these updates are generated automatically), and then just hope that they think to look in the updates folder, for which they receice no notification? I guess not much can be done to resolve this problem, but the important thing is that it is another route for communication with users, and as long as they are aware it is there, should they need/want to look at it, it is available to them. It would be important to advertise the page well via the the library website and posters within the library.

I am planning to write a proposal for a Facebook Fan Page for my library, so watch this space. In particular the ease of adding content to the page, and its accessibility to our library users really makes this Thing stand out for me. Existing Library pages provide lots of inspiration and encouragement to give it a go, and I really believe that they have the potential to be greatly beneficial to users for keeping up-to-date and informed with library news and resources.