[Web4lib] MySpace and Public Libraries

[Jami Haskell]

Thanks, Matt! I appreciate you offering your experience...
Your page looks great!

I would like to ask you (and anyone else who might have experience with
this) what criteria do you use for moderating comments? Do you have a policy
or guideline for moderating comments and/or friends? or do you use your own
personal judgement? This is something our administration would like us to
address with a policy so that we are covered if we choose to disallow
particular comments/friends. Suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your help!
All the best,

Jami Haskell
Internet Services Librarian
Washoe County Library System
jhaskell at washoecounty.us




On 3/2/07, Matt Mallard < humdahh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> This is my first post... I wanted to chime in. I set up a MySpace page for
> CSU Fullerton (http://www.myspace.com/pollaklibrary ) because a colleague
> and I started noticing how many students were visiting MySpace (not because
> we were spying, you can spot a "Friends" page pretty easily from a
> distance). We thought, "If many of our students are using the site on a
> regular basis, probably more often than our library's homepage, why not
> create a presence there." For me, the idea of people adding our library to
> their list of friends is an exciting prospect.
>
> The way that we began was to write up a proposal and submit it to the
> University Librarian. We outlined the benefits, discussed the technology,
> and gave a timeline. Once that was approved, we went ahead and simply made
> the site. It took an afternoon to create the site and maintenance so far has
> been minimal. I have been posting blogs, updating the calendar, discussing
> next steps with other librarians, and approving friends/comments when they
> come in. I decided to keep it rather low key until we hit some sort of
> critical mass. Our friends have been growing slowly but surely.
>
> One difficulty that I have encountered is the level of control that I
> exercise. I know that if I impose too much control on the MySpace page, it
> might not grow. But if I let it run wild and allow absolutely everything,
> things might get out of hand. I have only run into 2 situations where I
> decided to not approve a comment/friend, but they do happen.
>
> Regards,
>
> Matt Mallard
> Reference & Instruction
> CSUF Pollak Library
>
>
> On 1/25/07, Jami Haskell <jamihaskell at gmail.com > wrote:
> >
> > Hi folks,
> > We are looking into implementing a MySpace presence at my public library
> > system for outreach and programming. I am wondering if any of you have
> > implemented these profiles for your libraries could send me information
> > about the implementation process and the maintenance requirements.
> >
> > Specifically, how you went about getting started, how much time/staff
> > resources go into maintaining the presence, and what (if any) issues
> > have
> > arisen from public response (both positive and negative). Also, do you
> > link
> > to your MySpace presence from your library web site? Any other advice or
> >
> > experience you have to offer would be much appreciated as well.
> > You can email me off list at jhaskell at washoecounty.us
> > Thanks!
> >
> > All the best,
> > Jami Haskell
> > Internet Services Librarian
> > Washoe County Library System
> > jhaskell at washoecounty.us
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>