Social Anxiety

   Social media, a broad term used to describe a vast array of websites.  The general accepted definition is “A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us,  Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.”  So, they are pretty much websites that are focused on a user created experience, like the wiki, content is supplied by the sites users.
    I was particularly intrigued by social bookmarking.  Users put link together their favorite pages, or articles, and organize them in fashion that makes it easy for other readers to find information pertaining to the given topic.  For example, I was browsing del.icio.us and found a hopefully helpful post to articles on how to quit smoking, which I plan to implement in the near future.  I perused several social bookmarking sites and found del.icio.us to be my favorite.  I found it easy to find interesting links and found it very easy to navigate.
    Social media definitely has a place in libraries.  Even if all the library wanted to focus on was using a site like facebook, it is a great way to keep people up to date.  It’s free, and it allows you unlimited reach to your patrons.  It is futile for libraries to fight technology and the longer they do, the harder it will be to catch up.  I think it would be great if I would see more libraries using social bookmarking as well, if done right it could be of great use to patrons.  For instance, I do not like going up to a librarian and asking for a book suggestion, for one, most strike fear in the hearts of men, and second, what do they know about the kind of books I would want to read?  Therefore, I would love to just pop onto a library bookmarking site and find suggestions based on books that I have already enjoyed.
    In closing, libraries need to take advantage of these golden opportunities the internet offers them. Now, before it’s tooooo laaaate.