Social networking could promote communities internally among staff at the library, and also help develop groups of library devotees, replacing some of the e-mail surveys and printed materials we now employ. For three examples, I'll use the following:
Idea 1: "Let's Communicate!" Periodically, I survey the staff for language proficiencies, a useful list of names by department showing level of competency, from beginner to native speaker. Knowing this often helps when a patron is non-conversant in English. An online social network led by staff could help create staff appreciation of different ethinic traditions, customs, manners, and the understanding of grammatical sentence structure. Further, we could then form sub-groups of leaders to organize clubs for the community, to meet individually and later jointly in celebration of the many cultures present within the community, highlighting library resources and programming of interest to these cultures.
Idea 2: "Are You Like Me?" could be a YA social network site, to help teens feel less alone and scared when facing personal problems or concerns. The YA librarians could respond to teen issues by developing collections based upon these concerns, and writing reviews of resources, how and where to find them. Doing this online may prevent embarassment. At the same time, if any wanted to meet as a group in the library to talk about information, that could be arranged.
Idea 3: "Younger/Older : Mentoring Each Other" would be an intergenerational pool of skills, talent, wisdom, expertise, advanced knowledge, where patrons could meet in the library, exchanging their younger/older abilities, helping each other in today's world and to advance their future.
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