Oh Facebook!

Oh Facebook! How we love to hate you! Whatever someone’s personal opinion about the social network giant, it is important to be familiar with the ins and outs, pros and cons, of using Facebook because it is a part of our world if we are online. Having a presence on Facebook is an option that many school libraries are exercising. I found many libraries using Facebook as a means of communicating with students, parents, and volunteers.

This format seems to be a great way to share information about recent or upcoming events, give shout outs to students and classes on campus, and highlight new offerings in the library. I saw several schools with current updates about upcoming author visits and new books that are available. The most interesting sites were those that allowed others to post on them because they could take questions and allow for interaction.

There are some drawbacks that I noticed. One is that most Facebook pages do not allow anyone other than the administrator to post on it. That removes the elements of interaction that make the network so popular. Another downfall is that students are moving away from Facebook to more real time applications like Twitter and Instagram. Therefore, it is becoming a communication tool with parents instead of a way to meet the primary users of the school library. That develops into a question of time whether or not a librarian wants to take the time to upkeep a tool that is not used by the primary constituent. Also, many pages are not very active. It's easy to forget to update and use the page once it is made. Without up to date information the page becomes a useless relic.

Facebook is a unique and easy way to keep people updated about the happenings at your library. It is up to the page administrator how interactive and helpful to make it.