I was thinking lately about MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and other social networking sites. There has been a lot of positive buzz about libraries carving out a foothold in these online spaces as a way to market themselves and to make themselves more accessible particularly to younger generations. This a.m. I saw another positive mention about this phenomenon on CNET where Steven Cohen’s excellent work via Library Stuff regarding libraries using Flickr is highlighted. Good stuff!

However I wonder if the old adage, “If you build it, they will come” always applies? Just because we have a presence in these virtual spaces, does that guarantee that we will be successful in extending our libraries’ reach? I guess that the answer to that question obviously relates to how one defines success. Still, my personal experience in sites such as MySpace has been that when you build it, they (meaning friends or users or whatever you want to call them) don’t necessarily come. This is true even when I have spent time inviting many others directly to join. Even those whom I know already have an account in a particular service ignore an invitation, almost always. Even those who advertise that they would like to extend their network of friends, more often than not, ignore an invitation. Is this just me? Very possibly it is, and I can’t help but feel as a result like I’m back in high school again, an outsider who doesn’t belong in any particular clique and certainly not in the “popular” clique.

Setting the “me” factor aside, though, I think it is important for libraries who get involved in these virtual spaces to have accurate expectations or to have established clear goals for their outreach efforts. They need to continually evaluate how they are doing and work to improve their message or their content as needed. This is a fairly tall order and it requires a significant amount of dedicated time and energy. Yes, we need to get in there and take risks but we also need to be clear about any limits we might have in terms of longterm staffing. We also need to be clear about what we expect to get out of this kind of outreach and be willing to pull the plug if and when the investment doesn’t pan out.