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Libraries and Social Networking
While the term social networking may be new, the concepts behind it - creating community, sharing content and collaborating with others - are not. In fact, they have been around for a long time, as early as the time of Plato in 400 B.C., when scholars and philosophers studied and analysed the formation and interaction of groups of people. What is new is the digital medium, which makes connecting with other people faster, easier and more accessible to a wider population than it?s ever been before. The challenge is how to apply social networking in a digital age to enhance and extend the public service mission of libraries, museums and archives. Nine experts explore and comment on the trends and behaviors of users of the social Web. Following is their online conversation (Lori Bell (Alliance Library Systems, Second Life Librarian and Director of Innovation), Edward Castronova (Indiana University, Associate Professor of Telecommunications), Paul Jones (ibiblio.org, Director), Hemanshu Nig...