Social networking

I've always had an interest in the social networking sites before they became more commonly used. I was never quite sure how I felt about them and how much info I should be putting on them. I'm already a member of MySpace and Facebook and both sites have provided me with interesting things.

Through MySpace I have access to pages created by favourite authors and musicians that allow me to keep up with what they are doing. I can also access a blog published by one of my favourite authors, and I really enjoy reading this. Through FaceBook I have gained access to friends I had long lost contact with and this has been great because I get to find out about what's happening in their lives and vice versa.

Of all the social networking sites I looked at I felt that Ning and Twitter were two that could be used successfully by the State Library of Queensland. Ning offers a chance for all sections of the library to contribute and is more user friendly for an organisation than Facebook. There are opportunites to have more than one blog going, provide forums for client comments and generally market the library. Twitter would also allow both library staff and clients to interact with the library generally as well as with the collections. It could be used to easily promote activites in the library as well as displays.