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OCLC Scans the Social-Network Environment

OCLC has issued the third in a series of research reports to its membership on online issues and trends that affect library use, services, and resources. Sharing, Privacy, and Trust in Our Networked World, released October 22, explores the use of social spaces online by more than 6,100 respondents, ages 14 to 84, in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and contrasts them with the views and usage of 382 U.S. library directors.

As with its two previous reports on the global information environment and public perceptions of libraries, its findings and conclusions offer both public and academic librarians an opportunity for reflection, discussion, and a reassessment of their policies and services. Among the highlights relating to the general public:

• The web community has migrated from an internet built by a few thousand authors to one constructed by millions.
• Web users read more.
• More than a quarter of the general public and more than half of college students use social networking sites.
• Cell phones are becoming social networking devices.
• Respondents do not distinguish library websites as more private than the commercial or social sites they are using.
• Online trust increases with usage.
• Respondents do not attach a high degree of privacy to searching for and browsing information.

Findings related to U.S. library directors included:

• They have been using the internet longer on average than any other group surveyed.
• They are using internet search engines more frequently than the general public.
• Less than a quarter of them use social networking sites, and they are more likely to use them as a work activity rather than a social function.
• They rate online privacy more highly than the general public.
• They feel it is their professional responsibility to keep a user’s library information private.
• Only 14% believe social networking is a role for libraries.

The report also includes comments and prognostications by14 information professionals on libraries and social spaces, national differences in the six countries surveyed, social usage by college students as a distinct group, a 14-page glossary, and a comparative timeline of information technology and U.S. library milestones.

The survey concludes that libraries must become more engaged in social networking, just as their users are: “The rules of the new social web are messy. The rules of the new social library will be equally messy. But mass participation [by users] and a little chaos often create the most exciting venues for collaboration, creativity, community building—and transformation. It is right on mission.”

Posted October 27, 2007.