Week 3: Social and Professional Networking

I am not currently a social or professional network user, and I've decided not to establish a personal profile on any network at this time. For me, the main reason is lack of time. It's all I can do to keep up with email! If I was looking for a job, I could see many advantages to participating on LinkedIn.
I enjoyed looking at ALA's Facebook. If I was going to set up a social network presence for my library it would definitely be on Facebook as opposed to MySpace or Ning, mostly because Facebook has so many users (more than 400 million). I enjoyed skimming the news and some of the articles on ALA's Facebook, everything from the news which came out yesterday that teens are texting more than actually speaking on the phone, to an article about Mark Twain as a book critic, to the history of library cards, to how to clean books. ALA also provides a lot of interesting links to the organization's website, including various Factsheets and recommendations for viewing and listening and best websites. It made me realize I really need to check out ALA's website on a more frequent basis.
I have to say that I got one of the best laughs I've had in a while when I came across two librarians on MySpace who have started something called "Project Brand Yourself a Librarian." They are urging librarians to "brand" themselves with tattoos to show their pride in their profession. One of the librarians has had the image of a person reading a book which you often see on library cards branded onto his forearm. On his other forearm he has a musical scale, which I first thought was a barcode until I zoomed in on the image. It's demonstrates pride in your profession, and if you're planning on attending the ALA Convention in June they're hoping someone can recommend a local tattoo parlor.