“Academic libraries, Facebook and Myspace, and student outreach: A survey of student opinion” by Ruth Sara Connell
This study asks a simple question. Do students in academic setting want librarians contacting them on Facebook?
I have to say, requesting a lot of students as friends unsolicited seems like a bad idea to me. Robert Chan, from the University of Central Florida believes that even if students deny the request, at least they may be looking at the academic library’s site. I think that might be too optimistic. I find random friend requests from a stranger a nuisance and we do not want students to view the library that way. I do think some kind of outreach might be the best bet. Students are not going to friend libraries if they don’t even know they are on Facebook. Perhaps at student orientations, a representative from the library can come in and discuss the different services that the library provides as well as the benefits to “friending” the library’s Facebook page. The idea of posters and other advertising seems better to me. But, according to the study finding over half of the students said they would accept a request from the library, but they would not request the library as a friend. This survey yielded some very positive and some very negative comments. Perhaps more literature on the subject is needed. Until then I think that academic librarians will have to evaluate what approach might work best for their particular audience.
“Use of Facebook in academic health science libraries” by Dean Hendrix, Daborah Chiarella, Linda Hasman, Sharon Murphy, and Michelle L. Zafron
The study did have some results showing that students would use Facebook in Academic Health Science Libraries. Of 441 reference question, 126 were collected via Facebook. So, it seems like just making the page available and known about as a way for help with reference questions will be the challenge. And once students are aware of the service and have “friended” the library they will use it.
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