According to a recent study by Universal McCann, a media communications agency, half of U.S. adults use social media technologies, defined by the study as text messaging, blogging, and social networking.
Many bloggers have been critical of the study -- in particular the way it defines social media and counts its users. Nevertheless, it points to a real trend: Where a short time ago, such Web 2.0 technologies were used mostly by those under 18 years old, today, more and more adults are using such technologies for communication.
The impact on libraries? Here in Troy, the fact that increasing numbers of our users are experimenting with and growing more comfortable with new technologies means that we will use more of these ways to deliver information via our website. So, as Technology Librarian Lauren Henderson writes in this post, we will be incorporating blogging, text messaging, user comments, flickr, RSS, and other Web 2.0 technologies into our soon-to-be-revised site.
If you use social media and have ideas on how the Library could better employ these technologies, let us know.
For a copy of the McCann study, go to Media in Mind (80 page pdf).
And thanks to Stephen Ambram for calling our attention to this study, on his great blog, Stephen's Lighthouse. Stephen is the Vice President of Innovation for SIRSI/Dynix, a developer of library system software. His site is a must for any one who wants to keep up on new technologies and their use in libraries.
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