Working with Facebook in Public Libraries: A Backstage Glimpse into the Library 2.0 Rhetoric

• Ideals and visions of a Library 2.0 have in recent years been widely discussed in public library research and practice. Influenced by the Web 2.0 discourse, the Library 2.0 rhetoric has to a large extent been coloured by utopian and revolutionary overtones, identifying social media as key to transforming the public library institution. While previous research has primarily addressed this development conceptually, this paper explores how the visions of Library 2.0 are put to work in everyday practices. Drawing on ethnographic data, this paper critically examines the micro-level interplay between the social networking site Facebook and librarianship in the setting of a Swedish public library. The study reveals that the labour required to realize the visions of Library 2.0 is characterized by a constant flux between self-determination and precarity (i.e. existence without predictability or security). While the librarians participating in the study creatively construct new routines and strategies for doing work, they are always at the beck and call of Facebook and have only marginal opportunities of influencing the technology they use. Still, this everyday and situated use gives them a possibility of interpreting the purpose of Facebook differently. The paper suggests that by articulating such alternative understandings of technology more clearly public libraries could reject a position of being merely victims of technological change and make a difference in ICT-development.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Facebook

public libraries

social media

Information studies

Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap

Libraries

Library and Information Science

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)