Facebook is the Devil.

I would be the first to admit that I'm no marketing-guru, but when I saw that the library marketing department sent these out to all the branches I had a "WTH" look on my face.  I feel their efforts and resources would have been better spent on creating handouts for e-readers.  This happened after my supervisor tells me that my home-brewed, in-branch Kindle handouts are verboten because they did not go through the proper channels of upper management to get their golden seal of approval.  The library marketing department will FINALLY work on updating the e-book/e-reader handouts but only after the "handout committee" (yes, there's now a committee for that!) decides what they should say.

Thankfully, I've saved the handout on my computer and can print them whenever I feel like it.  Who knows how long it will take the committee to actually do something.  I'll just keep a couple under my sweater and whisper to patrons, "Pssst, hey, I heard you got a new Kindle.  I've got something for you."

Hate to sound like a hipster (which I am completely not), but I was the few who were on FB when they only allowed those with .EDU email addresses to sign up.  Remember those good old days??  Then they let the Myspace riff raff in and it all went to hell.  I deleted my real account awhile ago, I still have one because now it is the only way to get coupons for some deals. 

I have despised FB for quite some time now; I was always anti-social on it.  Now it's "Like Us" this and "Like Us" that.  I just do not trust them with any information.  Librarians get all up in arms about the OverDrive and Amazon connection, but who cares if Amazon knows what you're reading?  Undoubtedly, most Kindle readers already buy from Amazon so it isn't some big conspiracy about what they know about users.  What about all the information FB has on its users and sells on the regular?  But the library doesn't want to warn patrons about that because patrons wouldn't have any reason to come into the library and use the internet PC's, gotta keep those usage stats high!

I remember seeing a flow chart in regards to Web 2.0 commenting and library websites.  I wish I saved it because it was pretty amusing.  It seems that a lot of libraries jumped on the bandwagon just because it is the in thing.  Just having a Facebook account for the sake of having one is worse than not having one at all.  All I can say is, is that if you need an explanation of what a "troll" is then maybe you shouldn't be the one to run your library's blog or moderate the comment sections.  Personally, I think it is a waste of time and resources for the library to moderate it's own website, several blogs, Flickr account, YouTube account, Twitter account, and FB account.  Maybe I wouldn't have such a problem with the library's attempts at FB  if this was more of a secondary source of patron interaction.  The library has a website of it's own that most patrons visit regularly, what happened to using it fully?  The library needs to be more independent and not rely on a FOR-PROFIT(ahem, Evil OverDrive) for patron interactions.  If only the library would stop being such a needy stat-whore/online popularity contestant and stop worrying about the amount of "Likes" and "Followers" it has.