In my paper I’m going to talk about libraries’ presence on social networking sites, focusing mainly on Facebook and My Space. I will be looking at why libraries are interested in these social spheres and the benefits of being involved with them. I will be including some specific examples of how libraries have been presenting themselves in these spaces and how they are trying to make themselves available and useful. It is estimated that 85% of high school and college students have either a MySpace or a Facebook (or both) profile and the number of adults becoming involved has been growing every day. It seems only natural that libraries would want to tap into this. I will not only be looking at the benefits that exploring this avenue can bring, but will also discuss the potential problems. Do users want libraries invading their spaces? What impact could DOPA have on these ventures? Finally, I will be looking at how libraries can evaluate the impact they are having and what they need to look at to ensure that they are using this 2.0 technology to its full potential.
