Onwards and upwards and this week it's time to look at LibraryThing (catching up again!), Facebook and LinkedIn.
My thoughts on LibraryThing
The world's largest book club, social cataloguing for books. I can definately see the possibilities of LibraryThing and how it can showcase new acquisitions, but I think it's possibly got more uses for individual book lovers, book groups or small libraries and collections. It's a possibility students may go to LibraryThing and use it as a tool to view recent acquisitions or read a review of a particular book in the library, but I don't know how many would actually be bothered to do this. Seems like a fun site though. Who doesn't like books, or talking about them - it's a perfect place to do just that and get recommedations for further reading. In terms of ease of use, I had the opportunity to use LibraryThing on my job swap and found it quite easy to navigate. So all in all, a resource to come back to when I need to read a review of a book (if I don't go to the usual haunt Amazon first...) or if I suddenly feel the urge to be super organised and want to keep track of everything I read.
I first became aware of Facebook at university about 4 years ago and have probably had a profile since about then. I don't use it as much as when the craze first kicked off, but I do use it quite a lot to keep in touch with friends scattered in various places in the U.K and other countries. It's also great for sharing photos (although I do really like the Flickr option since exploring it). Before facebook, I used to have a myspace, a sort of rubbish version of fb. I just tried to log on to it to make some comparisons but sadly couldn't remember my password (damn! was quite looking forward to reading some cringe worthy 17 year old exchanges between myself and my friends). The only thing that lets facebook down is the privacy issue, the 'I'm sacking you because you have put details about how much you hate your job online so that everyone can see' issue, or even worse, the divorces, the murders (!) triggered by something that has been read on facebook or a 'relationship status' change. Facebook certainly don't make it easy to make your profile private, or your photo albums, or your personal info (it takes a lot of hunting around to do!) but if you are worried about privacy issues, it is do-able. My profile is private and only those I choose, i.e. my actual friends I know in person (not all of those in my the networks I'm a part of) can see my photos/posts on my wall etc.
I've taken a look at the facebook groups (or 'pages') for the various libraries in Cambridge. I have to say, I do quite like them, although as LottieMSmith puts it so brilliantly in her blog post, there is a wariness when considering the "'dad at the disco syndrome' where we try to impress the Youff with our Kool FB pages." You're never going to get every student joining the group (obviously), but I think it's quite a personable, friendly way to get the message across to those who do decide to join up. Also from setting up groups and events on facebook before, it's really quick to do and easy to maintain.
My thoughts on Linkedin
From looking at the further reading, Linkedin has been around since the time of myspace. "LinkedIn is not your teenager’s MySpace. LinkedIn is not your great aunt’s Facebook. LinkedIn means business." My professional radar was pretty much non-existent at 17, so thats why my thoughts on Linkedin probably used to be "I don't really know all of its uses, but my dad has one, so it's probably a bit boooooring." However, it has caught my interest over the past year, and now from looking at a couple of the example profiles and seeing how it all works, it seems to me like it is the opposite of facebook and may prove to be useful for professional development, just like I found twitter to be. Facebook = for fun, for friends, for non work time. Linkedin and twitter = for professional purposes, networking, contacts, knowledge, etc.
