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February 14, 2006
Please tell me why MySpace is bad for libraries
Bill Drew gives us updates on his library's experiment with creating profiles in MySpace and Facebook. In short, it's going well. He's asked his users what they think of the library being on these sites, and the response has been positive.
So here's my poll for the day...why are libraries/librarians so hesitant to create profiles on these sites? I've only heard one argument so far:
These sites let kids post all sorts of inappropriate things. By posting a library profile there, we are validting the site and we don't want to do that.
I don't see that as a valid argument. Kids and adults do all sorts of inappropriate things not only on these sites, but other social networking sites as well as on other web-technologies (e-mail and IM for example). Any type of social software, be it IM or Flickr, will gather its share of inappropriate posters and users, some of them kids. The fact remains that our users (and not just kids) are using these sites every day to get information, explore their communities, etc. Why aren't we there?
If people can think of other arguments against posting profiles on sites like these, please do tell me. I'm trying my best to understand the reluctance (and sometimes hostility) from librarians surrounding this issue.
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We totaly use it for our marketing our business, we are a bar and use this software http://www.myfriendbuilder.com .
We use it for automateing the sending of emails and adding friends on myspace..
Posted by: sam | April20, 2007
Much continues to be written about MySpace, and the fear has really died down. People have realized that it's a space in which you need to exercise the same cautions you would anywhere else, but which is no more less or more dangerous than any other interactive site out there. Many, many more libraries now have MySpace profiles and report success with them. Our own library has had success with it. I think the basic consensus is that MySpace is just one more in a list of thousands of things we need to do online as libraries to stay relevant.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | April13, 2007
Interesting reading- now that a year plus has passed since the original post - are there changes in thought about MySpace? We're having the discussion now at our school about access. MySpace was blocked in the fall. Is it a classroom management issue, a band width issue, a content issue? I have created a generic Library space- In my favorite movies I post the YouTube videos I've created to teach how to search for info. In my favorite books I've put links to the catalog and WorldCat. For me it's a kiosk of information in the swirling conversation. http://www.myspace.com/nmtc_Librarian
Sarah, would you consider revisiting the issue to see if there are different ideas? Well, you may have already revisited it and I haven't read it.
Posted by: Katie in Georgia | April13, 2007
Josh, as for your last sentence, "Do it at home," you already admitted that users don't have computers at home and that's why they come to the library to use them. If a user doesn't have a computer, they come to the library computers for everything--buying things, homework, games, and yes--MySpace.
Most libraries (public libraries, anyway) give everyone an equal amount of time on the computer, regardless of what you're doing with that time--homework, research, gaming, MySpace, e-mail, whatever. If your library doesn't give everyone equal time (e.g., you can't sign up in advance and there's no way to guarantee yourself a spot in advance), then you should talk to them about that. MySpace isn't the problem in this case--it may be the way your library is handling its public computer time. My guess is, though, that your library already has such a policy in place. As librarians, we don't place judgments on what our users do with our materials or with our computers. We give equal access to all. Why? Because while you want the MySpacers to get off so you can do your homework, someone may tell us they want us to kick you off so he or she can file taxes. We don't make judgments like this for that very reason. I never want to get into a position where I'm determining whose tasks are more important.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | January22, 2007
Everytime I go to the library everybody is on myspace. People who dont have a computer or internet acces at home who NEED to go on the computer (for school work or work in general) cant because everybody is on myspace. They use all of their friends and parent's library card so theyre on for hours. Do it at home.
Posted by: Josh | January22, 2007
Its no so much what people do on myspace. Its what myspace does to your computer and a network..When a person loggs on to myspace it does circumstancial harm to there computer and internet connection. On an average you probbly pick up 14 to 16 malwares just looking at your friends profiles. When you look at a persons profile you are putting yout CPU in grave danger. Because of all these people copying and pasting HTML codes when you open a profile with large pictures it makes your CPU's power usage spike about 30% instantly. Not to mention phishing most myspace users dont even own there isp addresses or email accounts any more. Dont get me wrong myspace is cool but its not worth it. Mad props for Tom he had a great idea. All those little punks who call themselves hackers messed up a really good thing....Peace
Posted by: furio | January20, 2007
Well, I am on my school's newspaper staff and I am doing a story on myspace.
I think myspace a fine website for kids, if they know how to make it private so that they can only accept their friends, not people they do not know. I think that is dumb. Now, I'm not saying that the kids are dumb, their ACTIONS are dumb.
Posted by: Erin | January19, 2007
There is no way that any library can block children from using every potentially offensive site out there. With or without filters. And frankly, that's not our job. It's the parents job. I can't seem to understand why everyone seems to forget about the parents' role in all of this. Yes--post a library profile on MySpace. Use it as a platform to teach kids about safe online behavior, about keeping your information private. It's better to be there, and use it as a positive place, than to ignore it entirely and pretend like it's not there at all. Besides, I hardly think that a kid hearing that the library has a MySpace profile is going to be what gets the kid going to MySpace. They're already there. From 5-50. They're there. Putting our heads in the sand and pretending it doesn't exist, and therefore we absolve ourselves of responsibility is not the answer.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | June19, 2006
Because libraries are state supported facilities, there should be a sense of social responsibility to children and their safety.
Hosting a library site on my space will further draw the children to the site. It may start off with good intentions, but as the kids browse profiles and encounter web cam videos displaying all sorts of crude pornography, this leads them to trouble.
Why would the library want to draw children to a site that has the potential for harming them?
What is the gain?
How does this improve the quality of life for children?
Posted by: shannon | June15, 2006
Rupert Murdoch (aka Mr. Fox News) owns MySpace (see the BBC article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4697671.stm.
The irony of this escapes far too many people.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | May22, 2006
Their history is my biggest concern.
http://www.trentl.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=49
Posted by: JetShack | May22, 2006
I'm of two minds when it comes to MySpace. I made note of this today after I read this article concerning a Texas community college's banning of MySpace.
Posted by: Library Guy | April23, 2006
Only teens and only MySpace? What about seniors and young children? What about Facebook and online gambling sites? It's not one site, and it's not one age group. The answer isn't to ban or black list a site, but to educate people about online safety and privacy.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | April13, 2006
i am opposed against my space it is a threat to all teens
Posted by: David B | April13, 2006
Well put Robert. Many libraries already push that kind of information out already through blogs, newsletters, RSS feeds... Doing the same thing in a group format would work well too.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | March 1, 2006
Hi, Sarah. I found this post through a hardly related search. My credential is that I've spent more time with these social networking sites than I probably should admit.
That said, I agree completely with Ken Fujiuchi's take above. I would see a public library representing itself as an individual to be rather silly.
However, a library or "friends of the library" GROUP makes sense to me, particularly if it has motivated maintainers that keep it fed with relevant bulletins, events, etc. The patron should feel some small advantage to being subscribed to your group. For some, that may be that they were alerted about the screening of a favorite classic movie, for others, that they are introduced to other bookish people.
Posted by: Robert Johnson | February28, 2006
Everyone is posting such useful and wonderful information about both MySpace and Facebook--the pros, the cons, the considerations, the pitfalls. I think this is wonderful. Keep it up!
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February28, 2006
While I know of MySpace, my professional interest has been more with Facebook. I created a profile for our library and did run into some issues concerning "how" to refer to the library as an entity. I've also tried to be aware that this is a "social" space for hanging out. I decided to make the profile light and approachable. To promote the Facebook presence I went into some of the larger groups and posted an announcement.
So far, the library has lots of friends, but it really hasn't generated any reference questions. I do monitor Facebook regularly, but I don't really look at user profiles too much - but as I write this I wonder if this is inherently the wrong idea. After all, an individual has created their account and populated it with information about themselves they wish to share. If they say they like Gone with the Wind, and we have a rare movie script or even just know of a great website, would it really be so bad to let the person know about it? But we can't know unless we look at their personal information.
Another potential use for Facebook is to use it for advertising and marketing library events or services. We haven't really done this at our library yet, but it is on the radar screen.
I do have some concerns about Facebook. Privacy can be a concern. Also, You'll note that I put "social" in quotations, because this is one of my main concerns about Facebook. To me, it is a lot like the shopping mall - it seems like a public space, but it is actually a corporate space. In fact, part of their licensing terms -which appear in MySpace too - are problematic.
Here is the section, under Member Content Posted on the Web Site, that bothers me:
By posting Member Content to any part of the Web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, perform, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
You may remove your Member Content from the Web site at any time. If you choose to remove your Member Content, the license granted above will automatically expire.
What exactly are the creators of Facebook trying to do with this licensing clause? As I read this (and I may be wrong), but by agreeing to their license you have given them the right to use anything you post anyway they want to use it, until you remove it from Facebook. Granted, this license may not hold up in a court of law, since it is a click through license. My assumption is also that this clause is there to protect their company and perhaps to allow them latitude in any marketing they do. But to me this is still quite a bit of latitude the company is taking with what other people have created. I am not a lawyer and may be off base on this interpretation - I actually wouldn't mind hearing what other people think about the terms.
So, while I think this could have some benefits, any benefits we have seen so far have been very modest, and there will always be some concerns about this site. Two last thoughts- while Facebook is popular now, it could also be a fad rather than something long lasting. Finally, as I've alluded to above, I'm not sure that I have completely tapped into the Facebook as thoroughly as possible and there may be more I could do with it to benefit the patrons and the library I work at.
Posted by: Allen | February28, 2006
Wow, this conversation did get rolling. I came back when I saw the new post suggesting a second look at the comments. All sorts of wonderful ideas as well as significant concerns. As long as we can talk about all this rationally rather than reacting hysterically like some of the headlines, I think we may be ok. The suggestion I made about spaces and coolness maybe comes from my days as a teacher (before I became an academic librarian). I dealt with teens, and while I was fortunate enough to get along with a good number of students, I knew better than to invade their space. At any rate, I do wonder at times if eventually the teens and youths will look for other spaces if it turns out too many "authority figures," perverts, whatever is making the "cool" factor drop drives them out. I am not saying it will happen anytime soon, but young people have a funny way of just moving on to other things when something is no longer cool.
The whole thing with the board member and the MySpace being a hangout for perverts is a serious case of someone needing some education. This means we have our work cut out for us. We have a lot of educating to do. Not to deny the few incidents, but clearly blowing them out of proportion is not the way. Education is needed all around. To educate the communities and parents educating their children to learn how to be safe online.
A lot of food for thought here. I have blogs, but have not felt the need to make a MySpace (or any other service) page. My library director experimented with one, but for her, it is a personal page. Like the commenter above, she does mention she is a librarian, but does not advertise it anymore than other things. For me, just not seen the need, but I can see where it can work for other librarians. So, if others try it out, let the rest of us know. In the meantime, best, and keep on blogging.
Posted by: Angel | February17, 2006
I guess we're just talking about two different definitions of "rich kids." So, by your definition, yes--we are. By mine, we're not. Ah well.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February17, 2006
sarah, if your library has a website, it is one of the rich kids. my library has a website. we are rich too.
Posted by: ctr again again | February17, 2006
ctr (caleb): I had a feeling that you had misread my post. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am always an advocate for new and innovative library services--technology-oriented or otherwise. I have no problem with libraries using MySpace--quite the opposite. It boggles my mind that so many people are so vehemently against it.
Thank you for calling my e-branch luxurious--it's a one-person show here, so I take that as quite a compliment. I do all the coding, design, maintenance, everything on the website as well as the three other areas of responsibility I mentioned above: database collection development, all tech training for staff, and coordinating our three virtual reference programs. And this isn't for a one-branch library...it's 11 branches. It's a lot for one person to be responsible for, and getting praise from my peers helps to make it worth it.
Our library is not one of the "rich kids." Despite the associations people have with Marin County, our library services are not well-supported. The County Library system is on the lower end of per capita library funding. Why? Our County has 6 city libraries as well as the County system, and those cities is where all the money is--as such, those city libraries get those funds, not us. A few of them are underfunded as well--but it's clear which communities have money when you look at their libraries. And it sure as heck isn't the County system. From what I've read, many county systems are in the same boat.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February17, 2006
jeepers! you sure did get the discussion rolling. from your words i felt you implied there was something wrong with a library that didn't join myspace, and thinking about it and re-reading, i can't say now you intended that.
i am definitely envious of your luxurious e-branch, and always hating the rich kids, even if i am one now myself as far as public libraries go, i think i let that color my response, so apologies for *my* vision being narrow.
i'd like to work on getting all of our communities libraries. then get the libraries great collections, then get those libraries internet service, and then websites, then they can join myspace.
there is probably a reason that there isn't a blog called 'the grumpy librarian', other than that we are all to grumpy to blog very regularly, but let me say i always appreciate your (and other blog peoples') enthusiasm. i just don't see it in the people around me on a day-to-day basis, and find it incredulous at times, but promise not to blame you (or other blog people) for it ever again. thanks for being vigilant and credulous. you don't have to post - i am just too lazy to find your e-mail.
Posted by: ctr again | February16, 2006
I am an Academic Librarian, and personally use Friendster, but I have taken a look at My Space and Facebook. I'm just not sure how effective it is to have a "Library" profile in a social network. I can see a "Friends of so and so library" group made up of MySpace profiles, but a profile of a library has limits to being "personal", or social. As a group within a social network, you can present you library as not just a single entity, but a group of people that make up the "Library" entity, consisting of a variety interests, cultures, etc. I think you are severely limited in what you can do as a "Library" profile, as I wonder what hobbies a library would have? What movies does the library like? Books? TV shows? In the end the library profile either remains an impersonal thing that you can make a friend, or a representation of the personality of the person who maintains the profile.
Posted by: Ken Fujiuchi | February16, 2006
We are validating the students by being there. I am still getting invites. We are also on Facebook but MySpace allows us to do more.
Posted by: Bill Drew | February15, 2006
@Lisa: did you do anything formal to promote your Facebook page? Or was it word of mouth from student employees or the like?
And just to be clear, I didn't mean to imply that libraries in the dorms are a bad idea, just that if we simply showed up, I don't know if they'd know what to make of us. This also underscores my point that schools and libraries vary widely. Lisa's UIUC has 30,000 undergraduates. My Colorado College has about 2,000.
I just had a funny vision of "Friends on the Facebook" being a statistic that ARL libraries would have to report.
Posted by: Steve Lawson | February15, 2006
While I'm not a public librarian (or a librarian at all, at the moment) I'm inclined to agree with Angel. To my mind, many kids using Myspace or similar sites would see libarians as authority figures, same as teachers or parents. They might very well not want us there. Isn't part of being a teenager developing your own space, with your peers, away from adults?
But that's just my gut feeling. I have no way of knowing whether that's right or not. And I think Steve is right when he talks about the low barriers to entry. This is a case of 'try it, see if it works' - if it doesn't, what have you lost? Not much. I'd like to see librarians experimenting in these spaces.
Posted by: Simon Chamberlain | February14, 2006
Lots of "groups" have profiles in MySpace (e.g., all the local college student bands). Why not a library? If the students don't want you in their group, they won't ask to be your "friend" in the online system and won't post comments to you. Same way they work in person with their social networking -- certain folks are popular and others aren't. Our students don't seem to be objecting too much. The Undergrad Library has over 300 friends in Facebook and it just set up a MySpace profile over the weekend (only 6 friends so far but give it time.) And - just FYI - on my campus there are libraries in eight of the residence halls ....
Posted by: Lisa Hinchliffe | February14, 2006
i recently created a personal myspace account when my friends (who are in their early 20s) said i "HAD to, so they could leave stupid comments" I can't say they didn't warn me. (they ARE stupid, often including *ahem* questionable cartoons) Compared to Flickr, bloglines, etc, myspace seems so awkward. (Maybe its just the learning curve.) And is it me... or is it s-l-o-w? Last time i was online, i kept getting server errors.
Maybe I am just too old (32) for myspace?
Our public library does have a myspace acct, and we've gotten some requests for friends. Early requests were other libraries & library people (Hennepin Co, thommy ford, Rochelle and others) Recently, we got two requests that seemed like "real" people. Well, clicking over to their pages, they were loaded with profanity. If we add them as a friend... that content is 1 click away.
I could see college libraries possibly being more leniant on this, but seeing how young some of the myspace users are, this makes me squeamish.
I haven't added myself as a "friend" to the library account due to what my friends are posting there!
If we add them as a friend, how does this affect our reputation? Does this reinforce the image of myspace as mentioned (above) by Jessamyn?
If we don't add them as a friend, and they were people from our community, are we affecting our reputation and risking the users saying "the library didn't want to be my friend?" Bad message for a future taxpayer. Easy way to make the tough-to-draw-in age groups feel even more unwelcome.
Posted by: Kelli ('brary web diva) | February14, 2006
Thanks for the feedback Steve--it's good to hear from an academic librarian standpoint too.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February14, 2006
Sarah, I have played around just a little bit with Facebook and MySpace. As a college librarian, I am much more interested in Facebook. I think the main problem with Facebook for libraries is a high squick factor. There is an awful lot of talk about sex and parties in there (at least there is at my school; perhaps not so much at Brigham Young?). To me this is analagous to providing service in the dorms. We have talked about it, and it might even work, but many students might think "what the hell are they doing here?" were we to set up shop in the dorm lounge.
On the flip side, it takes all of 30 minutes to set up a pretty complete profile on Facebook, so it's not like there is a high barrier to entry. For some libraries/librarians at some colleges, it might work--I could see where this might depend a lot on the particular character of the campus and the librarians involved. And if it does work, I want to read about it, and might re-examine my initial impression.
Posted by: Steve Lawson | February14, 2006
ctr: I'm not sure what you mean by "when you write like this," but when I post about things that I don't understand it's because I'm A) trying to get more information and B) trying to get a useful discussion started. I think in this case I've achieved both those goals. All of those questions you ask would need to be addressed by a library pursuing a profile on a site like this. Good for you for thinking of them. While my library does have a "Sarah Houghton," I have absolutely no control over PR or marketing. Just so we're clear. If I did, we'd probably have profiles already. My Library has no PR or marketing person--it's all done by the branch staff. But, since I'm the sole employee of the e-branch, that means a lot of marketing doesn't get done. I'm maintaining and coding a website, doing all database & eBook collection development, all technology training for staff, and coordinating three virtual reference projects. I'm busy. I agree with both you and Jessamyn that the best way to get people to understand these types of sites is to get them started, to look beyond the headlines and try it out themselves.
Mr. San: MySpace, like a lot of sites on the web that are hugely commercially successful, have serious accessibility and usability issues. And it is absolutely a problem. Nevertheless, that doesn't seen to stop many of our users from using them.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February14, 2006
Angel: I understand the "invading the kids' space" argument, but it's not just kids. Nevertheless, perhaps by our being there it will automatically make it less cool.
Meg'n: Good idea to get MySpace to create organizational profiles as well as personal profiles. But I hear just as many librarians saying they wouldn't post individual profiles as saying they don't want profiles for the libraries.
Anna: Good for you. Keep it up.
Jessamyn: You're absolutely right. Education is the first step, as it is with any new technology.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton (LiB) | February14, 2006
here's what one "A List Apart" user has to say about it: "I absolutely hate myspace.com everything about it. From the concept of it, to the people at my college who use it, to the fact that the design is made from nothing but tables and iframes. It’s something the internet could do without: a website that promotes use of table layouts, spacer GIFs, CSS generators."
try validating one of their pages. i just did, and got over 300 errors. shame.
Posted by: MrSan | February14, 2006
sarah, when you write like this, i can't tell if you are playing the devil's advocate or if you have a narrow vision of how libraries operate.
libraries are conservative. risk-aversion is the core of our being.
publishing a profile on some corporation's social software site is risky. who is responsible for the initial content and who updates it? who responds to comments? is the data private? what happens if someone posts their library card number? leaves librarians sexy messages? stalks a library staff member? are we going to join whatever hot site comes along next?
in some libraries, websites are the responsibility of a pr or marketing department. i'll also betcha that most libraries don't have a sarah houghton or a bill drew, and the ones that do don't always let them have any say over library marketing or programming.
in most cases, public libraries and academic libraries alike function as agencies within larger organizations - a city, a university. special library tax districts are still rare. to the extent that libraries have to compete for funds, risk-averse library directors, spokesman and other staff do *not* see becoming a node on myspace as an effective way to garner support. possibly, library leaders and budget-makers haven't even heard of these.
i would also bet that few libraries are, technically speaking, refusing to put pages on myspace and facebook.
in the same way we make those backhanded collection decisions to exclude erotica, zines, manga, rap cds that sell under 1 million copies, independently published christian fiction, proofs that the world is flat, and treatises on homemade explosives, we exclude some activities in our programming and marketing efforts also.
in principle, we can collect those materials if we want, and sometimes we even add a token item to prove our point. in practice, these materials are often "not in scope" or "not important to the community" or sadly, "not in our profile with the bookseller". thankfully, some libraries do collect those materials, and thankfully, some libraries do experiment with social software.
i am cynical, as ever. a more positive way to take the discussion could be, what do we do to change these risk-averse attitudes?
personally, i think that the end goal shouldn't be to pop up on the internet wherever our users are. the goal should be for the library to be a community center online. becoming nodes on existing social software sites is a baby step towards reaching that goal. what do we do to encourage that baby?
to get people to accept that wikipedia is not full of garbage, i show them how to edit an article and view the history.
to get people to understand what rss is, i show them how to add their local weather to their yahoo! or google home page.
what do we do to make people understand how myspace works and why the phenomenon is important? get your pr director to sign up today. come to mama.
Posted by: ctr | February14, 2006
Around here the answer is much more simple - no one has heard of MySpace. Actually, that's not true, many of the kids use it, and use it a lot. However the generation that includes people my age don't use it, don't read blogs, don't really interact with the web socially very much at all. They're also in the position of reading headlines like this one that was splashed across the local paper today
Teens' MySpace Web site a boon for 'predators'
So, you have a set of people who have no idea what it is, who may not have ever heard of it, who are now reading that it's where predators hang out. I know this is lunacy (you may as well pillory the candy store too if that's your angle) but educating people properly about how to deal with MySpace, much less convince them to consider interacting with it is a real challenge. At the same time, high schools are banning it left and right (it's banned here) which makes it even less likely that peope will learn about it through direct experience instead of crazed headlines. I talked about myspace at a library I worked with yesterday and the head of the trustees -- who is just learning how to use a mouse -- is like "oh that's where all the sex offenders hang out"
I know that's not really what you're talking about when you asked your question, but considering that what older generations may know about MySpace, there may need to be some education before there can be some interaction.
Posted by: jessamyn | February14, 2006
I've had a personal MySpace account for about a year. I read about it in the student newspaper and decided to check it out. I don't hide that I'm a librarian, but I also don't wave it around and proclaim my information retrieval abilities. The way I see it is if someone needs help, they might ask me, but that's not the only reason why I'm there.
Posted by: Anna | February14, 2006
My argument is simply that libraries are not people, and using profiles that exist for person-to-person communication to represent an institution rather ruins the point. If I created a book discussion site or a blog with comments and someone used it to post their own personals or for spam, I'd be annoyed. Just because other groups (bands, notably) do it doesn't mean it's the intention.
If librarians want to put a personal profile on MySpace in a professional capacity and tout what they and their library does, then I think that's excellent. It does, however, have to be voluntary. (Ever had a coworker stalked or been called at 1 a.m. by a patron with a reference question? I have.)
Actually, I think the neatest thing would be for MySpace to realize the need for certain groups to have a profile and create a template and search capabilities to handle it.
I know many people will think my reasoning is silly, but diluting a community with extraneous information makes it less useful.
Posted by: Meg'n | February14, 2006
I don't know about formal argument, but I have seen in a couple of places that the reluctance may be from feeling you are invading the "kids" space. In other words, the last thing young people want is for people like us (and take that with a grain of salt) invading their cool space. In a place, I saw the remark of it would like a librarian handing out their business card in a pub. . .ah, got it, it was in the ACRLog (http://acrlblog.org/2006/02/07/are-we-welcome-at-the-party/)
I think the point of a post like the one I am referring to is that we may think it is cool to go into those places, but it does not mean they think it is cool. Just because they are there doing their thing, it does not automatically mean they want us in there with them. I can certainly see that point of view. However, not arguing one way or the other, but you did ask. Would love to hear what other librarians, and non-librarians, think about it.
Posted by: Angel | February14, 2006
