Library space versus "my" space:Does Facebook have a place in an academic library?

I joined Facebook several years ago, having set aside my reservations about privacy and given in to the urge to find out what friends and colleagues are up to at any given time, as well as sharing my own thoughts, photos and so on. I now login most days to keep track of people, and have been surprised by messages from old school friends who I haven't seen in several decades (that's what you get for having a memorable surname...very few Bruders in this neck of the woods...)

However, I am also aware of the ongoing debate as to whether libraries should get involved in what is essentially a social space for our readers.Initially I thought not, but am now coming round to the idea of facebook as a good way to keep any of them that care to sign up as "fans" informed of changes, new resources and so on.The only downside I can think of is the need to login regularly to maintain the page/group and the risk of negative feedback and disappointing numbers of "fans" ! I won't let this put me off and plan to ask for permission to set up a Sackler Facebook page shortly.

I have been reading other 23 things blogs on the topic and was very surprised to learn (from James at O.I.L. posting an interesting item on the demographics of social networking sites) that my own age group (ie mid 30's to mid 40's) are the biggest users of sites like Facebook. I had been labouring under the illusion that over 40's were in a minority and that social networking was the preserve of "digital natives" ..what an eye -opener.

I also found a link to the "Alexa" ratings for the world's most popular websites

http://www.alexa.com/topsites

and as you can see, Facebook is second only to google in the rankings,with other networking sites very close behind.