The wrap-up: meetings and responsibilities

We met on September 20, October 19, and November 9. At each meeting, we discussed the research and preparation that we were going through prior to our presentation. Overall, the duties were split thus:

Rose - contact for West Valley Library branch, information fill-in of Facebook profile and group (events, contact info, picture, etc.), research on how libraries use Facebook

Me - construction of Facebook profile, construction of Facebook group, blog construction, research on how libraries use Facebook

Beth - construction of Facebook profile, construction of PowerPoint, research on how libraries use Facebook (majority)

I think that's about it as far as a recap of how we put together the presentation. Anything we need to add?

Final PowerPoint done!

OK ladies, it's done -- the final PowerPoint document is complete. I e-mailed it to you since Google Docs can't handle its fabulousness. :)

Facebook in libraries - a(nother) real-life example!

At the library where I work, we have our outreach/marketing guy working specifically with social media. He has attended a training/seminar on all the different types of social media that libraries use, including a lot of stuff that I hadn't heard of before...and Facebook! Because he was less familiar with Facebook-- and there were a lot of questions from others at our staff meeting on Monday-- I was able to pitch in with some information that we've looked at during the preparation for our presentation! It was really exciting to know that Facebook is something that is valuable for many types of libraries, that connect with many types of patrons (the one where I work is a special library, where we work with customers who are federal grantees; the one we're presenting is, of course, a public library). Anyway-- not important, in a direct way, for our presentation/project, but a great example to reinforce the awesomeness of Facebook! :)

Presentation Outline

Hey guys!
Here is our brief outline of our presentation in regards to what we discussed at our meeting on Sunday. Let me know what you think and what changes need to be made. I have also emailed you this in a word document format if it's more convenient.
I highlighted the information that needs to be changed or added in red.

Outline of the presentation on 11/15/08

1. Introduction –Megan
2. What is Facebook? –Megan
3. Facebook poll- Megan

*add a poll about the class using any other social networking application*

4. How libraries and librarians use Facebook-Megan
5. Professional development/Idea Sharing- Beth
6. Internal Groups-Beth
7. External Groups-Beth
8. Facebook Pages vs. groups- Beth
9. External Outreach (split into 2 different slides with screen shots)

*Instant messaging will have a screen shot of another library’s Facebook

*Marketing will have a screen shot of the West Valley GROUP page -Rose

10. External Outreach-Applications-Rose

11. Other search applications-Rose

12. INSERT Screen shots from West Valley Profile here –Rose

*The screen shots I was thinking about are the home page, the profile page, events (maybe 1 or 2, and the friends page* Is that enough or do you suggest anything less or more?

13. Real Life Examples-Rose

14. References

15. Questions

As of now I need to send Beth the following screen shots

1) Facebook of another library

2) West Valley Group Page

3) West Valley events (from group page)

4) Home Page

5) Profile Page

6) Friends Page

Cool Website

hi guys!

I was looking through the LibrarianInBlack Website and I found this website about Facebooks for libraries. It has a lot of interesting information, but i wasn't sure if we should include this in our presentation or do we have enough information for the time allotment we are given?

http://www.davidleeking.com/2008/10/09/what-can-you-do-with-a-facebook-page/

iLibrarian on Facebook use and apps

As I'm preparing for my presentation tomorrow by reading through my assigned blogs (I have about a million entries saved in my Google Reader!), I found a few entries on iLibrarian about the best Facebook apps for librarians and the hottest Facebook groups for librarians. This, I think, adds to the case for keeping the individual page for the branch-- so that these apps and groups can come into play, making the library a more "active" participant in Facebook. What do you guys think?

Meeting Sunday

Hi!

I know we had discussed in our previous meetings that we should have one of our meetings through Elluminate and I was wondering if you wanted to do this for Sunday? This way we can practice uploading and presenting through Elluminate.

Also, I have begun to add the November programs on the West Valley group as events.

First draft of the Powerpoint doc is complete

Hi guys --

I've finished the first draft of our Powerpoint presentation. I loaded it to Google Docs and shared it with both of you, but for some reason some of the formatting is jacked up -- it may be because I'm using the 2007 Office Suite, rather than 2003, or it might just be due to the fact that Google Docs is sort of crappy. In any event, I'm going to have to e-mail it to you so that you see it with the proper formatting.

We should definitely do a pre-presentation Elluminate session to make sure everything translates properly and to ensure that our timing doesn't exceed our alloted 9 minutes.

See you guys Sunday!

I agree with Rose - see link below

After reading through the article that Rose sent in ("Social Networking"), I found this blog entry: http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/itbloggingsection/2007/11/facebook-pages-.html.

Looks like Facebook has launched "Facebook Pages" as an alternative for organizations. Apparantly it's pretty similar to an individual profile; in fact, it sounds like it's pretty much the same thing. I guess one of the only differences is that instead of having "friends," you have "fans." Here's an example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooklyn-NY/Brooklyn-Public-Library/5767266707.

Anyway, I'm really not too particular about which specific type of format we go with anymore - group page, facebook page, or both. So long as it won't get shut down, then we should be fine.

I'm about 50% done with the PPT document. I hope to get it posted soon.

Opinions on keeping the Facebook page

I am going more towards keeping the Facebook page, but uploading the library programs and events on the group page. I actually got the chance to speak with Sarah-Houghton-Jan (LibrarianInBlack) and she recommended that we keep the Facebook page because it has proven to be more effective than a group page. She also told me that she is working on getting every branch in the San Jose Public Library a Facebook page and she seemed pleased with what we had so far!

Thank you Beth for putting all our documents into Google docs and if you need any more when you are working on the PowerPoint I will try to find some.

Megan, the group page looks great and I have uploaded some pictures on there of the staff. The November calendar just came out so I will update that ASAP.

Great job ladies!

The blog looks great!

Hi ladies!

Megan, thanks for setting up the blog! It looks great. :)

Rose, I got your articles -- you and I both pulled the "Be my Friend" article... too funny. Great minds think alike. :)

I have to admit that I'm not wild about trying to manage our documents via e-mail. We could do it, but I want to see if we can find an easier way to dump all of our stuff onto one central place on the web. To that end, I've uploaded my two articles, as well as Rose's 2 articles, to Google Docs & shared them with both of you. Can you let me know if you are able to view the files? Google Docs Help has some weird disclaimer that collaborators can only see the link to the PDF file, not the PDF file itself. Not sure what that means.

I'm hoping to get started on a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the key takeaways of our articles sometime soon. Once I get something pulled together, I'll share that on Google Docs too.

Lastly, in response to Rose's question, I vote that we get rid of the individual page for WVPL. I think it's kind of pointless to set up a page that may very well be shut down. We can talk to the limitations imposed by Facebook when we present to the class. What do you think?

Hasta!

Possible Articles

Thanks for setting up the blog Megan!

Here are a couple of articles that I found through the databases.

Rapple, C. (2007, November). Social networking. Serials, 20(3), 240-241.

Jennings, S., & Price, J. (2008, June). Be My Friend Using Facebook in Libraries. Tennessee Libraries, 58(2), 1-3.

I have the HTML or PDF formats of the articles in my email so I will forward them to you so you can check them out.

Regarding the Facebook, I will go ahead and update the information on the group information. I am not sure whether we should just completely get rid of the West Valley individual page or if we should keep it there, but focus primarily on the group page. Let me know what you think.

Facebook group set up! And welcome to blogging!

I have set up the group for the West Valley branch on Facebook. I used the West Valley account to do so, and "she" is the moderator. What do we want to do with that profile, now that we've determined that it's more appropriate to keep patrons informed through a group page rather than an individual page?

Oh, and we should all definitely join the group-- and invite all the current friends of the library to do so as well. Rose, will you be ok to fill in the group's information with basically the same information (maybe a little additional, such as events)?

I know we are all looking at articles on social networking with libraries and Facebook specifically, so we can post links to those (when possible) on this blog as well. Let me know if you have questions about posting, commenting, etc.