Week 3 Social Networking Tools

I was surprised to see how much information you can include in a social network, it was an eye opener for me. The amount of friends you can make online and the easy way to stay in touch with all of them is amazing.

I think it is a good idea for MLA to create a social network to get in touch with colleagues you usually don't have time to talk to or you don't know if they have relocated. My main concern will be privacy.

Before using Facebook and MySpace I thought these tools were not what I will consider "professional tools" to disseminate information to our usersbecause there are mostly oriented to teenagers and considered a place to meet people, but once I created an account and added the library catalog, PubMed and other library resources it becomes a one stop shop for users to get the information they need rather than clicking several times from the library web site to access databases, online catalog and e-journals.

I know for a fact that users can add their Facebook link to their personalized Google page so there you have it!! all included in their Google page. I think our users will like it.

I had great concerns about privacy and having all my information out there for everyone to see because it is not only your friends and people you know that can access your information but also friends of your friends and the list of people can grow pretty long until a point where people you don't know can access your site.

Also there was an article in the news not too long ago warning people not to give out all your private information since it lives indefinitely on a server-- I can't recall whether it was Facebook or MySpace.

I created an account in Facebook using a fake name and the e-mail address I created in Yahoo and my profile doesn't reveal my real name. I was able to find one of my dearest friends in Facebook so I told her it was I using a fake name-- the drawback here is if someone is looking for me he/she will not be able to find me since my real information is not there.

Advantages: easy way to communicate and keep in touch with colleagues and friends; very easy to create; one stop shop for library users.

Disadvantages: privacy concerns.