Facebook Group for CILIP Y&H

At the recent SINTO course on social computing we covered the popular social networking site Facebook. As a result I signed up and created my own Facebook page to see what value it might have for librarians.

Most of what happens on Facebook is about personal networking which is great fun for those involved but not really relevant to the work environment. It is easy to see why many employers ban staff from using it at work.

A search of facebook groups with the keyword "librarians" produces over 500 hits. Many of these are trivial but there are a number of serious groups aimed at librarians e.g.:

• Library 2.0 Interest group
• Librarians and Facebook
• Libraries and Librarians

Looking at these I found them of some interest but not focused enough to be a useful CPD tool. Most of the members are from the US - nothing wrong with that in itself but their experiences are not always relevant to the UK.

There is a CILIP group that has been set up by members rather than Ridgmount Street. And recently Andrew Walsh has set up a Group for the Yorkshire and Humberside Branch of CILIP.

I'm not sure if the library profession is quite ready to make use of social computing tools. Many librarians lack easy access to a PC at work and lack the time to devote to networkingat work. (And the inclination to devote time to it at home). We also lack the culture of using such tools for networking and professional development. We are not very 'clubable' and many of us expect CPD to be done to us in a formal setting rather than seeking out learning opportunities.

However, things change. I wish the CILIP Y&H Facebook Group well and hope that it is successful.