23 Things Week 2: Online Communities

This week, as part of my 23Things Kansas activities, I spent an enormous amount of time on Facebook and related sites.  It has been fun, enlightening, and sometimes extremely frustrating.  I know that this class is to “do at your own speed” BUT I feel like I’m falling behind already, and it is only the second week.  It took me an eternity to figure how to post questions/comments on the 23 Things discussion group because I thought that I had to sign in to the site.  Once I figured out that I didn’t have to sign in, it was embarrassingly simple.

I chose Facebook because I already had an account and I wanted to learn more about it and start using it more effectively.  I was, and still am, wary about accepting too many “Friends” on Facebook.  I am still struggling with when, and how much, to let my professional life and my personal life overlap in online activities.  Participating in 23Things Kansas has forced me to be more open.  I’m not completely comfortable with that yet. 

One of the things I like best about Facebook is that is allows you to set up groups of friends so you can limit who sees specific information on your site. Also, you can look at the newsfeed from just one group at a time rather than having news from professional contacts, family and friends all mixed together.  I also like to use the chat feature with family. 

I originally used Facebook to keep up with family and to connect with a few friends and former colleagues.  I am now starting to see the value in using it to make professional connections.  I expect to continue using it for both personal and professional contacts in the future. 

I certainly can see the value in using Facebook to promote academic and public libraries.  I think that a high school library might also find ways to use it to effectively promote the library.  I just can’t see using it for an elementary school library.   If I DID decide to attempt using it to promote my school library, I would certainly want to create a new account that was completely separate from my personal account.