SAXTON B. LITTLE FREE LIBRARY
319 Route 87 Columbia, CT 06237
Phone: 860 228 0350 Fax: 860 228 1569 E-mail: staff@columbiactlibrary.org

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Keeping you up-to-date on what's happening at your library. We invite you to join in the conversation!
JULY 7, 2010
There’s No Delete Button on the Internet

Okay, so for a long time now, I’ve been asked: Are you on Facebook?  Twitter? Linked In?  What!? No social networking site?  There is pressure from certain factions in Librayland that librarians should be visible in these places; that their Libraries should be visible in these places.  Those that say there should be Facebook accounts for the Library, the Children’s Department, the Teen department and Friends and all should be unique!
 
I do not agree.  Not that I don’t have some accounts in these places.  I have. I’ve gone, looked, snooped about, investigated.  But I’ve seen no appeal or value.  First, to post (or worse receive) one liners every few hours about nothingness is not my thing.  We are busy with other things.  The minute I created an account, I had people I don’t know wanting to be my friend.  And people sending me information and pictures I didn’t want to know.  The sheer quantity of info, like junk mail, was overwhelming.
 
Our Friend’s of the Library have such an account and I think it’s nice if people wish to get updates this way and someone has the time to do this.  But this information is available on our website and in the Library.  This layer of time consuming work to post: “Remember Program Tonight”  seems intrusive.
 
Not that I don’t love the Internet and communicating on it.  I’ve multiple e-mail accounts that I check daily (even on vacation.)  You are reading this blog.  I’ve written other blogs.  I am on various topical Internet lists.  In fact, I even hosted a South African woman for a weekend whom I met online through a social network list. 
 
But I make a distinction between things that I do online in which I choose to make contact, there is a moderator approving and watching the participants and a select group participating then the open call.  My name and information is not going out to the trillions for access and no one is using the venue as a marketing ploy.  These lists are for specific purpose, members join for specific shared interest.  Topics of no interest can be ignored, deleted…
 
This is not the case on social networking sites.  Worse, hackers abound, so what appears to be posted by an particular person, may not actually have been.  As a result, we have bullying, pictures posted without right or permission, and virtual identity theft. 
 
In response to this new push for online social life we’ve started to see the repercussions.  Under age drinkers being caught, parents in trouble for allowing the party, employees dismissed because of their derogatory comments about their work places and others denied employment because of their online behavior.  Was this just?  Maybe… maybe not.
 
And now… we have newly started businesses that for  $20.00 a month or $100.00 a year will guard your online reputation.  What do you get for this?  Reports telling you where your name appears, a personal agent who advises you on your reputation, and information removed from online databases. 
 
Funny, I always thought advising on one’s reputation was called parenting.  But I do know that librarians have been able to tell you how to get this information and eliminate your name from certain sites for a long time.  But we’ve been doing it for free.


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