Week 6: Facebook - playing nicely with others

Aaahh... Facebook. Hmmm.
I wrote a lot about Facebook about two years ago. In our first blog/Web 2.0 experience. Not much has changed since then. (Have a look at previous comment using the tags...)

• What can Facebook do for you individually?

Quite a bit has changed since then... not counting Facebook's [slightly annoying] way of changing page set-ups and privacy settings [and only then letting you know]... I see that I had 28 friends at that time. Now I have 152. Well, maybe it's not a bad thing to have that many 'contacts', mostly from 'the old days'. The comment about the Zimbabwean diaspora still stands. We have found old school friends, neighbours, people we would otherwise have lost for ever. Good folk. Some of the 'friends' are pages of V8 drivers... F1 teams... library systems.. (Thanks Manukau! I've put on the book I was reading and my best authors ever... couldn't think of "a" book) All information about what we're interested in.

I play Scrabble more or less every day with my "bestest" friend from varsity days. She's in the UK now and has been for years. We used to play scrabble often when in Pietermaritzburg.

Not a lot has changed about the way I see it since 2008!

• Find 1 library (public, tertiary or other) and look at what sorts of update they make?

Brooklyn Public Library - http://www.facebook.com/BrooklynPublicLibrary. Well - most of the time they are very similar to our Manukau Libraries facebook page (or are we similar to it? ) - great information about what's happening and what to read/listen to, and so forth. Chose this one out of the 'over 500' facebook pages with 'library' in them because I'm sure I've heard about Brooklyn Public Library before - don't they use Pharos and Millennium? Together? Linked?
And then look what I found - they can alert all their followers and likers to the fact that they are at risk - this picture is from their website.
It made me realise how fortunate we are, in many ways.

• What can Facebook do for us as a public library?
  

Keep us in the public eye? As long as there are 'likes'.
BPL have 4,600 'likes'.
Arts and Architecture Library - another 'library' I looked at because of the number of likes it had, has over 38,936!!! From their info: "Arts & Architecture Library is a project of library by the University of November 7 in Carthage; Tunisia. specific for National school of Architecture and Town planning of Tunis sis at Sidi Bou Saïd ; Tunisia. The books are for Architect, Engineer, Designer, Student & passionate for Art & Architecture Page Created on September 23, 2009. Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/Architecture.Library - unbelievable! Well done to them - lots of book info as well - and suggestions. Just the ticket!

• Is it easy to use? Is it hard?
  

Ummm - Facebook does give one heebie-jeebies sometimes about 'privacy'! It's a learning thing, unfortunately. I met someone the other day whose daughter was abused via Facebook - closed her account and now has one in a pseudonym. Sad.

• Would you continue to use Facebook?

Most probably. Unless something drastic happened.

• Have our customers asked about Facebook?

Well.... not to me, but I am very pleased to see a growing number of folk on our site!

• What would our customers get out of a Facebook page?
  

Up to the minute info, reviews. My reservations long ago were that it would take 'time' 'out at the back' while we were being thrust 'out the front' and that we would have to have dedicated folk to continuously update it. Well, we do and we have and it looks good. Well done!

• Would you promote our page to customers? Why/why not?
  

Most certainly if they were that way inclined. Because there are polarised views I would be loath to promote it straight up, especially as one has to be a member of Facebook to access Facebook, unlike a blog. And some of our folk may not want to go that far.

Week 5: Music files and MP3

Well - I signed up to last.fm - still not too sure what it stands for. If anything this would be where I am most 'at sea' with the Internet. You will know this by the fact that I went and looked for 'The Anniversary Waltz' by Vera Lynn (NOT Status Quo) on the Internet first. And found last.fm. Hmm. I am confused by their term 'scrobbling' - and when I went back to look for the FAQ I couldn't find them in a rush... but I would get there eventually. Another WHOLE language!

It wasn't too bad - I just don't want to get to the point when I have to pay anything. I was directed to a site where you could listen to the whole track - it looked a bit like YouTube... link below...
http://www.we7.com/track/Anniversary-Waltz?trackId=3669795&m=0
http://www.we7.com/#/track/Anniversary-Waltz!trackId=3669795
Also Glenn Miller - previewing him took me to YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJE-onnw2gM&feature=player_embedded..

Hmmm ... if I was to have to help a customer with this I would have to find someone else to do the helping... Not often that happens - but the brain can only hold so much, and obviously music sites and MP3 stuff missed out!

Also - at the top of the page a box said DOWNLOAD this song free. REALLY!.... hmm I had to download an .exe file for that... Imesh I think. All a little too much for an afternoon! Sorry!

Week 4: Goodreads

Well - I have yet another widget on my blog with book covers flashing past! Goodreads was very easy to go into, unlike LibraryThing when I first signed up there two years ago! It is a pain adding books onto any of these sites however , and it would be great if our Reading Lists had ISBNs in them which could transfer more easily to these sites.

How might customers find GoodReads useful? They might if they are serious about making lists and using other people's lists to find more books to read. they might also enjoy the groups - the author entries, for example.

What would library staff get out of this site? Probably much the same as the customers... and useful for Reader's Advisory "background info".

My book montage

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Would you promote GoodReads to customers? Most probably - especially in my little 'talk' on websites on What to Read Next" that I have given two of, and am planning one more of... very basic and just an introduction! Why? Just for information. Folk can choose their own 'poison'!