Okay, in the interest of professionalism (and the chance to play Scrabble online) I set up a personal Facebook account, and have wasted countless hours this summer on Scrabble, Scramble (thinly disguised Boggle), Word Twist and BubbleWords. In a bit of role reversal, my 19-yr-old daughter told me it's a silly waste of my time. At least now I can relate to the addictive nature! Another question - should I friend the 3 alumni (post-9th grade) of my school who've approached me (online?) Also, do kids other than those who are already "library nerds" ever friend an official library page? I suppose one could at least send them event notices?

I know what you mean about not being to sure how to use it. I signed up with facebook a few months back but I'm still muddling through all the stuff. I'm sure it comes with being reticent about what to info to put "out there" my daughter has no such problems and is always chatting to friends and posting comments. Does anyone else have this problem about not being sure what to put or is it just me

I refused to touch social networking for the longest time, and then last February my cousin invited me to join Facebook. I immediately found an old college friend and "friended" her. A guy I knew in elementary school, who was way too cool to talk to me in HS, friended me. We caught up, he invited me into a few games, and now I occasionally check his profile to see if anything is new. Just because a Facebook contact is called a "friend" doesn't mean you have to be best chums. In 6 months I have somehow accumulated 75 friends. I've lived in 7 states in the past 20 years, and have belonged to an online community for almost a decade. Because of Facebook I have rekindled acquaintanceships and friendships I have missed. I've made phone calls to a few old friends I have found, including my best buddy from my HS PL page job. He became a librarian too! My husband and I work opposite schedules and have a toddler, so we don't get to have much fun together. We have constant Text-Twist and Scramble games going, which we can each play on our own time. We send each other fun and flirty gifts, "superpokes," and "flair." I am in touch w/some of my teen and twenty-something nieces and nephews who I rarely spoke w/, and I just found a few of my Boston cousins who I haven't seen in a decade. Now we're all in touch! I've tried out many different applications and have deleted the ones I didn't like. I hooked up my Goodreads.com account to Facebook, so now visiting friends can always see what I'm reading, and I found a bunch of Facebook friends who are on Goodreads. Facebook has definitely improved my life, although I do waste some time on it. The time I waste is pretty much the only non-work/non-Mommy time I get, and I can take it in short spurts whenever I'm free, so I don't fret about it too much. Until this class I hadn't thought much about the professional side of Facebook, but will start exploring those aspects too. Just my $.02 and then some.

A colleague just got a job as an Asst Prof at a US university and part of her pitch was that she would deliver the library services at their point of need such as Facebook and MySpace.

But how can I use it in the elementary school, and how do I overcome the fact that school access is blocked by filters? Or is this more a case of being aware of what these services are about so we know what the kids are talking about?

I just joined Facebook and, like Shayne, it says I have no friends. I have to say that that is really bothering me more than anything. Like Barbara, I am not sure how it will apply to me as an elementary librarian other than being knowledgeable about things that are important to the kids. I've had a MySpace account for a couple of years that I used mainly to monitor my daughter's activity. I did invite some former classmates to be my friends, as well as a few people I've met professionally. I hope someone will be my friend soon!

Thanks, everyone. It's been helpful to hear how others are using their facebook accounts-- and also to know that I'm not the only one who's still not quite sure what to do with it. Like Annie, I'm just a little self-conscious about putting myself "out there". But I'm finding it an interesting experiment and I'm going to stick with it for a while and see what comes of it!

I enjoy facebook but never invite students to be my friend, nor accept them until after they graduate, and then, still conditionally. Instead of using your peronsal sight, you can set up a group/ member site and then invite students to join. Even if your school filters facebook, facebook still defaults messages posted to your site to your listed email address. If they can check their email at school, they will get facebook messages. Mostly, it is a fun way to get kids interested into through library through their preferred communication, but it might be a repitition of some of the communication a library already offers.