This morning I read a blog post by QQ*Librarian, citing survey results from Gerry McKiernan that only 23% of users would probably contact the library through Facebook.
QQ goes on to talk about how we cannot, from a monetary standpoint, be everywhere that our customer is or wants to be. This is true. I, for one, have no staffing budget to require my librarians to offer 24/7 chat (nor pay to be included in such a service, thank you) as an example.
I think there is a greater issue here, however. Have you ever been in a restaurant and your server hovers? I mean really hovers? They visit you at least 7 times and give you 4 new cokes and have already asked twice if you want dessert? And you don't want to leave them a decent tip or go back to that restaurant because they lessened, instead of heightened, your eating experience?
Same with librarians and social technology - we don't always need to be there. There is a difference between putting yourself out there on Facebook because you want to (hey, my name is ***** and I happen to be a librarian) and putting your library on Facebook and putting out books and attaching your Flickr pictures that are linked to your catalog and. Keep it simple. Bombarding the patron is going to tell them one thing: you need them more than they need you. And while that may be true, they certainly don't need to know that.
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