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Maybe it's because I'm 50 years old. Maybe its because I am cranky by nature. Maybe it's because I'm a librarian. Maybe it's because I see a clear difference between private and public space. For however many reasons, I just can't comprehend the appeal of social networking sites like myspace.com or facebook.com that are so popular with web-savvy adolescents and young adults today. I don't understand why anyone would want to post the often-embarrassing personal information and photographs that are displayed on the user pages of these sites. Moreover, I don't understand why anyone would want to look at these narcissistic exhibits of contemporary immaturity. But I work in an academic library, and these are my potential users. That sounds like a problem.
Chuck Thomas and Robert H. McDonald think that there is a disconnect between libraries and the current web generation. In a paper entitled "Millennial net value(s): disconnects between libraries and the information age mindset" posted on the Florida State University D-Scholarship Repository (http://dscholarship.lib.fsu.edu/general/4), the authors posit that the current generation of students has a different worldview, or worldwidewebview if you will. This generation has grown up with computers and the internet; networks are a seamless part of their lives. They tend to favor multimedia resources presented like entertainment, not solely text-based information. They are used to sharing files and work in online communities and fail to see a clear demarcation between information consumers and creators. The security measures that libraries and others use to protect privacy and copyright merely get in the way of their preferred methods of working and learning. As Myspace and Facebook are forms for social networking, this generation gravitates toward more democratic ways to learn and stay current about their world.
Social bookmarking
One way they share information is by sharing the web sites they find to be of the highest interest. Hammond, Hannay, Lund and Scott make clear in their 2005 article in D-Lib Magazine "Social bookmarking tools (1): a general review" (www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html) that the roots of social bookmarking are in the hyperlinks feature that spurred the creation of the web to start with. Under a variety of names, web browsers have always included a bookmarking feature to save links to favorite sites. Social bookmarking sites...