Thing 12 Social Networking

I know what I am about to say will receive many gasps from some other librarians. I believe that social networking is a wonderful way to connect with people. I have had a myspace account for almost a year and I LOVE it. After reading some other posts, I realized that I am in the minority about the seeing the value of these sites. Isn't that what we should be all about? Connecting with people? Of course, like anything else, there has been some publicity about how myspace isn't safe for kids. You have to be 14 to have an account. Of course, kids know how to get around this. Many of my former students have profiles and I am on their friends list. I made a point to talk with these kids about the dangers of chatting with people they did not know. We talked about not giving out personal info, like phone numbers, addresses, or even where you go to school. I used it as a lesson rather than reprimanding them. I think that most kids are just curious about the myspace world. By having my own profile, I can see what the kids are exposed to as opposed to ignoring this huge part of pop culture. From a professional standpoint, I see having social networking sites as a great way to publicize what is going on in your library. Kids are online joining these sites. Why not create one for yourself so that kids can see you as a person with a life outside the library? Or create one for the library where parents, kids, and the community can communicate about reading? I see this as just another way I can reach out to people and I see that as a good thing.