I found an interesting little library-centric widget for use with Facebook today, courtesy of the InfoTangle blog. Springshare, who are the creators of the LibGuides application say it’s the first library application made for the site. It works by letting the librarians among you utilise the LibGuides Web 2.0 publishing system. Springshare say “The system helps librarians publish and share information online, while highlighting and promoting library resources and services to the community.”
If your institute or organisation has a Facebook presence then this is worth taking a look at as you can access LibGuides content and marry it to your institute’s home LibGuides system. It’s a great example of Library 2.0 potential.
Despite the very real privacy issues connected with joining Facebook, as we have discussed recently on the blog there has also come to light news that Oxford dons have been using Facebook to “spy” on their students. Apparently the young scholars have been posting images of their rowdy behaviour following exam success and initiations on the site. Complaints from members of the public to the institutes, led eagle-eyed university authorities to Facebook where all the evidence was there to see. Those involved now face disciplinary action.
Whilst the Oxford administrators did nothing worse than view publicly available photos to catch out the high-jinks enjoying perpetrators, it seems to a touch sneaky, not really “cricket” and arguably going against the spirit of what Facebook is for. Then again, should one choose to engage in antisocial behaviour and then boast about it on a public forum what else can you expect? The point is this state of affairs highlights that what one might wish to share with a network of friends; you certainly wouldn’t with colleagues or peers. Therein lays the problem.
Facebook has the potential to be a powerful professional networking medium. In fact it was originally developed for academic use, formal or otherwise, it has since then snowballed into a so-called middleclass, Myspace rival. You could argue that Facebook could now be considered a little too risky to use for professional or formal purposes. There is a lot of personal information flying around out there.
I don’t want to condemn Facebook, I like and use it, but I want a clear division between the personal and the professional. Right now, it seems Facebook has swung a little too far to the former making the latter an impossibility for me. This doesn’t mean that such a useful and powerful tool should be condemned to a fate of Friends Reunited 2.0. The LibGuides widget I mentioned above is a good example of a great Library 2.0 application.
Of course you can modify security settings but after a while I’ve found these become so restrictive as to render Facebook as a bit pointless. There is no comeback or protection to what a third party can publish about you, to start with, think old school or holiday photos and anecdotes. Whilst that’s fun to share with friends its not the kind of information you want made available in the same arena as your working persona.
With this in mind it seems to me that the time is ripe for a type of “Facebook Professional” to emerge, its remit should function in much the same way; as a tool to promote one’s professional interests, achievements, learn, seek advice and of course network. It could act as a platform for evolving your C.V. act as an organic career biography, think of the recruitment possibilities. The crucial difference being is that everyone that joins adheres to a more formal and business-like protocol, inviting a peer to an “e-coffee” (alternate suggestions to that are welcome) might be more appropriate than poking a potential new boss, and certainly more professional.
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