[Web4lib] Facebook

[Chris Bourg]

Michael--
We use our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/greenlibrary) as simply 
another vehicle for pushing content to folks and to stay "in the flow". 
We have 960 fans today, which as far as I can tell, makes us the most 
popular US academic library on Facebook.
We don't get loads of interaction, but we get some; and it is more than 
we get on our website (which does allow comments). 
<https://www.stanford.edu/group/ic/cgi-bin/drupal2/blog>

I get a fair number of questions about our page and how we administer 
it-- below is a recent answer:

" We have 4 administrators for the page, but in actuality, I do almost 
all of the postings on the page myself.  I personally subscribe to lots 
of library and book-related blogs (Google Reader), and just post items 
that I think will be of general interest to our fans. I also follow 
Stanford happenings and post Stanford-specific stuff from time to time.  
We also have our regular website blog 
<https://www.stanford.edu/group/ic/cgi-bin/drupal2/blog> posts imported 
into the page.
I'm pretty pleased with response from patrons. I am working with a new 
librarian on taking on some of the responsibility for posting items to 
our page, so that the work is more distributed.

We have nearly 1000 fans at this point--which, as far as I can tell 
makes us the most popular academic library on FB.  We average 1-2 
comments/likes per post. It seems that the more general posts draw the 
most comments/likes -- either links to interesting articles about 
reading, or news about the completion time for reconstruction on the 
coffee shop outside the library. "


The bottom line for us is that for relatively little work, we have an 
additional channel for reaching patrons and being part of their "flow".

Cheers,
Chris

Andrew Bangert wrote:
> Michael,
>
> Aside from the potential for interaction (absent from most library web 
> sites),  it is about pushing information to students.
>
> To expand on what Chester said, regarding putting the library where 
> students will encounter it as part of their normal routines,
> it isn't just about being at hand, but about not requiring them to 
> come to you at all, anywhere, in order to learn of something.
>
> If a student follows (becomes a "fan" of) the library FB page, updates 
> to the page will show up in the stream of updates that is the 
> student's FB homepage.
> It is a way to reach into the stream of information that they are 
> paying attention to, to drop information they aren't seeking out in 
> their lap.
>
> As others have pointed out, you can use the FB page as a conduit for 
> existing RSS or Twitter feeds.  Doing so puts these feeds in a form 
> that a student, rather than a 30 year old blogger, developer, etc., 
> might actually use and monitor.
>
> -Andrew
>
> Mitchell, Michael wrote:
>> What are the advantages of Facebook over Web pages on the library Web
>> site? I'm afraid I really don't understand. I just don't see anything
>> special there. I'm really asking, not trolling.
>>
>>
>> Michael Mitchell
>> Technical Services Librarian
>> Brazosport College
>> Lake Jackson, TX
>> michael.mitchell at brazosport.edu
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Leo Robert Klein
>> Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:22 AM
>> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Facebook
>>
>> John Fereira wrote:
>>  
>>> Christine Zeitler wrote:
>>>    
>>>> One of the academic libraries at which I work is attempting to decide
>>>>       
>> if
>>  
>>>> they want to use Facebook to interact with the students.        
>>> I think that the more important question here is whether students want
>>>     
>>
>>  
>>> to use Facebook to interact with libraries.
>>>     
>>
>> Good point but increasingly it seems as if Facebook is more an entry 
>> point for various types of communication, including friends of 
>> course, but also professional and personal interests.
>>
>> I mean, just looking at my own list, I've got the Chicago Historical 
>> Society, a couple of my old schools and something called 'Static 
>> FBML' whose meaning I honestly can't remember.
>>
>> Assuming a similar collection (adjusted for age) on the part of our 
>> users and I don't think it's too exotic if the library starts banging on
>>
>> their Facebook door as well.
>>
>> LEO
>>
>> -- -------------------
>> www.leoklein.com (site)
>> www.ChicagoLibrarian.com (blog)
>>
>> aim/msn/yhoo/goog: 'leorobertklein'
>> -- -------------------------------
>>
>>
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-- 
Chris Bourg
Head, Information Center
Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources
http://infocenter.stanford.edu