step #19~ can't live without my facebook!

okay so step #19 is all about discovering social networks and thinking about how you can use social networking in your library. i think the best way for me to discuss this issue it to tell about my personal use of facebook cause lets face it i can no longer live without facebook. not because i am some kind of addict who relies totally on it for all social contact but because it has become the primary way for my friends and family who live around the world to keep in touch. that is how i got on facebook to begin with...when i moved here it was a free way to stay connected with my friends and family in canada as well as norway, israel, the states, england, etc. and stay up-to-date about the day to day events in life. over the years i have found more friends and they have found me. we have reconnected, picked up where we left off and now keep in touch with what is all going on in our various parts of the world and lives. but i have also used my facebook account for the good of the library world. via fellow library school friends and professors as well as various library related groups i belong to, a sort of library support system has been created for me and the others involved. we share reference questions, help find new jobs(no i'm not looking but others were) and swap stories about how we can futher enhance the library universe. i have also answered reference type questions from my no-library friends but i don't think that is the place to be in order to draw people into the library. i just happened to be in the right place at the right time. via the groups offered and such it can be used to support for outside library users as well as librarians with like "friends of the library", "ala", book discussion groups, etc. it can shed light on library opportunities and good books to borrow and spark reading interest but i don't think we as librarians should get all hung up on that. i think that is just an extra...well with all this talk about facebook i wonder how people are doing. time to check up on some friends!