Thing 11 - Facebook

I,  like many others I'm sure, have very mixed feelings about Facebook. On the one hand, it provides an opportunity to stay in touch with friends, create groups (this can be particularly useful for students), invite people to events, and with numerous pages to 'like' it is really easy to stay up-to-date with news from a wide variety of sources - be it a favourite shop, band or TV show, a blog, newspaper or magazine, or your local public library or arts centre. It seems that most organisations now have some presence on Facebook and all use it exclusively to promote their services and keep readers interested with a steady supply of information. It provides much the same function as following someone on Twitter, although in a far more visual manner. Whereas on Twitter you will have to follow a link in order to see images (other than Twitpic for example), on Facebook images are fully integrated into individual pages, which I think serves to make them more readable and appealing.

However, there have of course been massive issues with privacy, and although Facebook do seem to address these after they surface in the media,  it doesn't seem like long before another controversy hits. I always get slightly irritated when I'm notified that a photo of me has been added to my timeline which I didn't put there, or being tagged in a post (although you now get to authorise any post you have been tagged in before it appears on your timeline). My most recent annoyance relates to having to see everything my friends have liked or commented on, including pictures that I have not liked myself filling my news feed.  However, despite these complaints, I do believe that for promoting a service, Facebook can be quite indispensable. For the purposes of the library, I think it has proved very successful, and a quick comparison with other university libraries in the UK reveals that we have amongst the highest number of 'likes.' Other things I noticed are as follows:

University of Portsmouth

• Boasts one of the highest number of 'likes' for University libraries.
• Has a rival chat service, with a not exactly unsubtle advertisement!
• Even has a You Tube channel with videos on how to renew loans and issuing/returning using the self-service machine.
• Lots of regular posts and a bright, image-filled page.

I think this is probably the best Library Facebook page I have seen - there just seems to be so much going on. So thumbs up for Portsmouth (and their brilliant football team - controversial!).

University of Manchester Library

• Surprisingly low number of likes for a large University library.
• Few links on the dashboard - only a map and photos.
• Bright, image-filled page.
• Slightly sporadic posting.

I also managed to look at a few other pages but with the format being identical for any page on Facebook it soon became clear that there would be little variety between these. One thing I noticed is that pages with lots of images accompanying posts are far more interesting to read and simply stand out more. Looking at our own page it is very text heavy and I feel it could certainly do with a bit of brightening up! In terms of gettting likes though it seems we are doing better than a lot of the competition so this is encouraging. With the potential for our pages to be filled up with spam and inappropriate posts, I also feel that we seem to have largely escaped this and that most users treat the page with respect, using it as it is intended.