Sloan Art Library Faces Facebook

So maybe it isn’t that easy to get students to read a library blog, but how about becoming their friend on Facebook? These days it’s almost necessary to have a Facebook account in order to stay in the loop with friends, family, and even places…like the library! Even my dad is on Facebook! The Sloan Art Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a great example of a successful attempt to attract users through social networking on Facebook.

The Sloan Art Library Facebook wall (you will need to login to Facebook to view this page. If you are not a member of Facebook, you can view the page in the screenshot above.) is updated regularly, sometimes multiple times per day, with information on library tools and resources, exhibitions, events, and timely arts news from around the world; the info page includes links to the library’s website and a map of the library’s location, as well as the library’s hours and phone number; and the event page allows the library to advertise events and send invitations, and also acts as an archive of past events.

The Sloan Art library Facebook page is not advertised on their website, but that’s the beauty of social networking–friends see the link on a friend’s Facebook page, they become a fan, and the chain continues. Currently there are 81 fans of the Sloan Art Library.

Since Facebook has a set layout and categories, every page works the same way, which makes it easy to find information. (We all get in a big tizzy when the layout or features change, but we learn to like it and get over it pretty quickly.) The one drawback with Facebook is that not everyone has an account, so by posting information on a Facebook page, you neglect to inform everyone. For this reason, exhibit and lecture notifications, such as those posted by the Sloan Art Library, need to be distributed in multiple formats, which is actually the best way to reach the greatest number of people anyway.

Facebook isn’t the only web 2.0 tool in use at the Sloan Art Library. The Sloan Art Library’s Flickr photostream features a small selection of images of events and artists’ books, a Google maps mashup pinpoints all art museums in North Carolina, and a widget on the Library’s home page shows RSS updates from three arts news sources.