# 17 1/2 Explore Facebook and Social Networking

To see how an application works the better way is to join it for experimenting and exploring. I set up an account on facebook.com and found that it was interesting and useful indeed for personal and business purpose as well. I see why the company expands so fast and worth so much in a just a few years (The wikipedia article on facebook cited that Microsoft spent over 300 million $ to buy 1.6% of Facebook!). I also added UIUC catalog, MyFlickr, and My Wiki applications to my facebook account. I found the UIUC catalog is good in searching for books only, for articles it is not for the public, asking for NetID ( the message on the page: "The resource you are trying to visit is restricted to UIUC students and employees".) My Wiki is fun. The widget includes seven features from Wikipedia, such as "Featured Article", "Picture of the Day", "In the News", "Do You Know". By clicking each radio button, the featured article or picture of the day will be presented.

Among the applications for librarians, the Books iRead is the closest to us. We in Queens Library can also make use of the networking features of the Facebook to improve our customer services. For a trial idea, for instance, we can start a "QL Friends" application, by which our customers can set up groups of author/book fans, a kind of book-reading and library-support social network. It can have contents like virtual book discussion groups to exchange ideas on books, recommending new books. Customers can set up virtual "Friends of the Queens Library" groups according to their own community areas, to comment on library services, submit constructive ideas/suggestions, and inviting and giving donations.