Thing 19

It was great exploring alternative social networks. Of the three networks suggested (WebJunction,Ning, and Gather), I found Ning the most interesting. This site offers an opportunity to join a number of network communities. For example, there's : Fitness star network, Digital making pace:professional and continuing education group, and Jobs in social media, just to name a few.

I also read the articles: MySpace for Books and WebJunction Article: Building a social networking envirionment at the library.

MySpace for Books:

The author(Rachel Deahl..Publisher's Weekly, 12/12/2005)of this article states that Gather.com "has the potential to do for books what mySpace did for music". As many already now, MySpace is a place/space where record labels can "prerelease buzz for new albums". This article suggests that Gather has the potential to "promote writers in the same way". This site gives users and opportunity to "publish their own content and then rate that of other members".

WebJunction article:

I find this article not only interesting but very informative. First, it points out the importance of creating a social networking environment at the library. The author(Steve Campion)states that "social networking has the potential of connecting programs,catalogs, and websites and taking patron interaction to a new demension".
The author goes on to say that "the challenge lies in convincing the doubters".

The author also lists several steps in becoming an "interactive" library.

First:Education/Social Web Literacy
Second: Education+Imagination/create: library blog,record and edit podcasts,launch a library flickr page, create a MySpace account, start a wiki.
Third:Convince key people in the organization to consider integrating social networking into existing library activities.