No. 7
ISSN: 1559-0011
September 2007
Contents
The term social networking may be new, but the concepts behind it—sharing
content, collaborating with others and creating community—have been around
for a long time. What is new is the digital medium, which makes connecting
with other people faster, easier and more accessible to a wider population than
it’s ever been before. NextSpace asked nine experts for their thoughts about our
increasingly online lives.
In 2006, Denver Public Library created a presence on MySpace to offer teens
online activities to stay connected, as well as links to library resources aimed at
this age group, such as homework help, 24/7 online reference and materials for
checkout. The result? Traffic to the library’s online teen site shot up 41 percent. “We asked ourselves, ‘Why not go to where the teens are?’ We can give them a
new idea of what a library is and make them feel comfortable here.”
OCLC is putting social functionality into WorldCat.org to build a social
network of the world’s library users.
Departments
President’s Report
Products and Services