Social networking

I've really enjoyed this module and I think I have a greater appreciation now for what social networking tools can offer in terms of facilitating communication and collaboration between people and communities. The Building the Social Library Online slideshow is definitely worth looking at. They outline quite nicely the characteristics of social software and also how libraries can utilise Web 2.0 tools e.g. to disseminate information, start conversations with our customers/communities, provide services where are customers are, capitalise on the collective wisdom of the crowd etc. I definitely agree with their advice to "avoid technolust" when implementing social software and to first ask "will it improve library services?" and "will people use it?" - I've talked about this in a previous post. That being said, they do provide some really interesting examples of how libraries are using social software and it's got me thinking about how we might use some of these tools to better engage with our customers.