Can professionals use facebook?

I just read an article Facebook--cautionary tales for nurses: nurses need to be wary about what they post on social networking sites that talks about how nurses should be careful of what they post online. While the article mostly talks about patient confidentiality, it reminded me of a situation that happened at my library recently.

At my library we were had started to implement a wiki page in order for all the employees to be update on current situations in the library. As there are a lot of staff that are part time and on opposite schedules it can be difficult to make sure that situations with patrons or just issues in general are passed along to everyone. Wikis are part of Web 2.0 and we thought it would be a great way for us to have a centralized location that we could all look at . We even got the support and go ahead from our HQ. Then they decided that the wiki was not on a secure network and it could violate patron privacy. They needed to discuss the idea of a wiki and create a policy regarding it. It was unfortunate, but not surprising. Sometimes with all the new technology coming so fast, we just get excited and want to use it and implement it! And then we find out that it doesn't really work out for us.

We were all very bummed about it, because it really was a great way for all of us to keep informed about current goings-on in the library. In Stephen's article The Ongoing Web Revolution he talks about how libraries are using different technologies in order to communicate and create new relationships with their patrons. I think his ideas are great, but what is slow to catch up is the policy that goes along with all these new technologies. We loved our wiki, everyone thought it was a great idea, and it was. But in order for all these new technologies to be implemented, new policies need to be implemented as well. And we all know how long it takes for policies to be made and voted on and implemented, they just don't match up to the speed of technology.

Stephens, M. (2007). The ongoing web revolution. Library Technology Reports, 43(5), 10-14.

Thompson, C (2010, August). Facebook--Cautionary tales for nurses: nurses need to be wary about what they post on social networking sites. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 16(7), 26.