Facebook

Not much work required from me for this Thing, as I've been a member of Facebook for about three and half years now. I've found it perfect for staying in touch with people and sharing photos, but the novelty of not-quite-spying on primary school classmates (after all, they know what they're making public!) and looking at blurry and vaguely embarrassing photos of my friends has long since worn off. Gone are the days when I could spend hours facebook-stalking, finding more groups to join, and link-hopping until I found myself reading conversations between perfect strangers. Interestingly, a YouGov survey I took last week asked me if I am getting bored with social networking sites, which suggests that I'm not alone.

As for libraries on Facebook, that's a difficult one. I've been a member of the 'Duke Humfrey Appreciation Society' and 'The Bodleian's Upper Reading Room is Hallowed Ground' groups for years, but never expected or wanted any interaction with these groups. Moreover, it was clear that these were fan groups (from the days before pages), created by readers independent of the libraries themselves, and I would feel disturbed if the libraries did try to do something to entice me in. I've seen several pages created by libraries to represent themselves, and whilst they have fans, in the same way that I joined the two above to show appreciation, I've love to know how many people actually want/take something from these pages other than a sense of connection with others, and the joy of giving something the equivalent of a thumb's up.

The Queen's College has what I consider to be a terrifying page, with accessions lists, links to SOLO, Jstor, COPAC and lots more, but whilst it has nearly 2000 fans, I wonder how often these functions are used. I have to say it would never occur to me to go to Facebook to look up a book, and, when I was a student, if I'd come across one of the search widgets whilst on facebook, I doubt I'd have used it. I may be looking at Facebook for work now, but back in the day, if I was on Facebook then I was Putting Off Work, and wouldn't want to be made to feel any guiltier than I already did by being confronted with the very thing I was avoiding.