Sunday, June 01, 2008

Facebook and Facebook groups #60 and #61

Since there really wasn't much for me to discover here, I will take Kjersti's post and add to it. I've had my Facebook account for a couple years and really like it, though I shy away from a lot of the apps that just are for fun like Kharma, cupcakes, Vampires, etc.

Probably the first item to show I use Facebook for Library related use is my friends. If you look at my Friends list, I currently have 55 friends. Five are related to me directly, 2 daughters, 1 unborn grandson, and 2 nieces. One is my Son-in-Law. One other is an old high school buddy. All the rest are in some way library related, either current PLCMC employees, former PLCMC employees, Learning 2.0 and 2.1 contacts, one I found through Facebook Groups, three friends were guest speakers at the library's Tech Summits, who I friended to see what they are up to in the library technology world.

I use Facebook as a launch site for a lot of the Web 2.0 resources I use a lot, such as:
Zoho Office
Twitter
Jaiku
Last.FM
Books iRead
Goodreads
Library Thing

I use these apps as a way to find new reads and sometimes for library purposes. I have to admit I keep up with Books iRead more than the others as I enjoy the Chuck this book capability. Jamie Christenbury and I chuck books we think the other might like and I've chucked a couple new titles at Kjersti by some of our mutual favorite authors, such as Mark Kurlansky and Robert Sullivan.

One use of Facebook was one brought to my attention by PLCMC's Chris Bates. He and I are both members of Metrolina Library Association and he used Facebook to ask me some questions for use in a presentation for Metrolina. I hadn't really thought of using it that way before. Since then I found an Irish Librarian looking for help with some research that our Carolina Room could provide and hooked her up with Jane Johnson. The original contact came from the Library 2.0 Interest Group in Facebook.

That leads me to the next use I've found for serious Library discussion on Facebook, Groups, here are the ones I've joined an found useful:


Library 2.0 Interest Group
Web 2.0 Tips and Hints
Libraries using Facebook Pages
Internet Librarian
FacebookAppsForLibraries
Libraians and Facebook
Web 2.0
Second Life Librarians

I'm sure there are others but these I have found useful to me. Of course, I also joined a couple Apple Groups too. Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will know I am a hardcore Apple fan, especially in the last 2 years since I bought my MacBook (I still have iPod Touch Lust, maybe someday I can afford one).

Next I plan to share my favorite Google Reader Library related feeds.

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