Social networking

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Social networking — online communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others — encompasses a wide variety of types, including:

• Virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), schools, and courses.
• Existing “brand name” sites (e.g., My Space, Facebook) and user-created ones (e.g., Nings).
• Collaborative tools (e.g., wikis such as Wikipedia, editors such as Google Documents, social libraries such as Library Thing).
• Other modes of communication such as podcasts, blogs, forums or bulletin boards, chat, texting, and instant messaging.

Other social networking types are prohibited by a majority of schools that responded to the survey as a matter of either school or district policy. These prohibited social networking types include existing networking sites (84 percent); instant messaging, texting, and chat (all 62 percent), user-created social networking sites (60 percent), and virtual worlds (46 percent).

But students cannot be unaware of the major role on-line social networking played in last year’s presidential election. New York Times political analyst Adam Nagourney noted in an election-day article that Barack Obama’s successful campaign rewrote the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago.

Gaming gains ground

Another form of social networking, gaming, also generated impressive activity at the nation’s libraries in 2008, as evidenced by a national  survey and the success of National Gaming Day @ your library.

The web-based survey of public, academic, and school libraries (plus a few special libraries) was conducted for the second year by the Syracuse University School of Information Studies’ Library Game Lab. About 40 percent of the 404 libraries that responded circulate games; PC games were the most frequently circulated type, offered by 25 percent, but the number of libraries circulating console and handheld games rose slightly from 2006 to 2007, while those circulating PC games and board/card games decreased slightly.

Game programs were rarely educational in nature (only 8 percent of the time), and tournaments were a part of a gaming program only about 35 percent of the time. In about 30 percent of the cases reported, the gaming program was linked to a summer reading program.

Libraries were asked to indicate the single most important goal of the gaming program. Drawing in the underserved was the most common goal, followed by increasing the library’s role as a community hub. Among the most common outcomes for gaming programs were:

• The reputation of the library improved with participants (65 percent).
• Users attended the gaming program and returned to the library later for non-gaming services (64 percent).
• Users attended the gaming program and also used other library services while there (61 percent).

Details of the survey, information about coming events, and a blog are available at the Library Game Lab of Syracuse website (http://gamelab.syr.edu/).

The National Gaming Day @ your library event, held Nov. 15, attracted more than 14,000 people of all ages, who came together in their local communities to participate in gaming events at more than 600 libraries around the country. “With the introduction of more social video games and board games, libraries continue to create and promote modern educational opportunities for their users and serve as community centers for the whole family,” said ALA President Rettig. Library gamers participated in a variety of national video game tournaments during the event, supported by the ALA and 2008 sponsors Hasbro, Top Trumps, and Wizards of the Coast.

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