Thing 20 -- or "My Face", er, "Spacebook", er, whatever...

Well, we are in (Facebook) and our significant other (as feared) already has the page tagged, photo-filled, wallpapered and, in general, filled to the brim.  Clearly, this is an activity prone to addiction.  By the time Miss Shelved checks in later in the week she is likely to have potential "friends" in the hundreds.  One supposes this is flattering as well as time consuming.

Groups joined?  23 Things on a Stick, of course, plus Librarians on Facebook and a couple of international Gilbert & Sullivan groups.  Even the deepest dyed Victorians have a web presence it seems.  

As the the "fastest growing" claim, the web is fickle.  There will be a new hot presence soon if not already.  One suspects that if the old-fogy librarians are joining, Facebook is already passe. Not far off the topic, for example,  teens of our acquaintance tell us that Second Life is already fading due to too much corporate and institutional presence as well as attacks from Trolls (sociopathic hackers).  Keeping alert is never the same as blazing the trail.

We did poke about in MySpace (and not for the first time, as it has been a bone of contention at our district middle school/high school level in recent years).  We looked at library pages.  One can only agree with the blogger (see resources) who wondered if teen patrons really wanted to "friend" their libraries on line.  On the other hand, libraries who actually offered services (as opposed to a theoretically hip presence) online were making an impact.  Readers' advisories, catalog links, venues for recommending new materials and/or  services all allowed users to connect better and ask for what they need. Can't argue with that.  This does, however, require that someone is actually  listening.  Too often (and Miss Shelved will not deny that the shoe fits...) web pages are created in a joyous frenzy of newly acquired skill -- and then left to languish, out of sight and out of mind.