The Best of the Not So Good: Hennepin County Library

I was really quite disappointed with the list of library Facebook and Myspace page examples for this week's lecture.  First and foremost, I could not access a few of them directly from the links provided; I had to search through Facebook or Myspace to find the right page.  Even then, sites for the Harvard School Law Library came up with a rather plain Facebook page with a description from Wikipedia and a link to the entry for the library in Wikipedia and that was it.  The same was found for the Public Library for Charlotte and Mecklenberg County.  I also found that the Myspace page for the University of Miami Libraries was private and I could not access it unless I was their friend.  Since I have used my own Myspace page in the last four years, I decided to just move on to the next site on the list.  I also was quickly reminded of how much Myspace has dated itself.  Facebook is very homogeneous and that's a true compliment.  My husband called Myspace the "Geocities of the Social Network market" and it's true.  The layouts available for use with Myspace are not very professional and even the basic layout is not inviting.  Anyway, this write-up is not about how much Facebook is better than Myspace, but my choice of the best library site example we had.

This award goes to the Facebook page for the Hennepin County Library.  This was also the first page I visited (I started browsing at total random) and I was quite impressed.  The Wall posts are current and appropriate for all user age groups of the library and point to events going on either at the library or the wider Hennepin County community.  The list of links at the top of the page give users access to information about the library, their photos, their Twitter account, and lastly an app within Facebook which allows the users to search for books or media in the Hennein County Library catalog.  I thought this feature placed this site above the rest.  It's just a quick search, but I think that's all that's necessary for a Facebook page.  I really liked the overall professional feel of the site and the fact that the organizer/creator of the Facebook page does respond to user posts on their "Wall".  Scrolling down there is a suggestion from a user about the ability to leave messages for librarians during off-hours.  The library page responded and thanked the user for the question and provided assistance by suggesting the user to email the librarian, which is available 24/7.  Overall, I thought they did a great job promoting their library, its available services and events on Facebook.  Great job "HCL"!