Go to where the users are. This is a key Library 2.0 concept, and includes but also extends beyond ideas about roaming reference librarians, research help in the doorms, and other physical, campus-based activities.

Social networking spaces on the Web, including such sites as MySpace and Facebook have begun to catch the interest of librarians as potential outreach venues.

MySpace is currently the most trafficked site on the Web, especially attracting younger users. Should libraries have a presence there? Check out the Brooklyn College Library presence and see for yourself. The site offers a handful of simple and well-chosen features. These include staff contact links, ways to connect the site to the MySpace community by, for example, adding the site as a MySpace "friend," links to prominent online services, and a list of "Interests" that highlights what the library has to offer. Blog entries are the means of posting library news. Visitors to the site are greeted by the audio of a cheeful song, "Cool in School." As of today, the library has attracted 1891 MySpace friends.

The University at Albany has 12,000 undergraduates. Taking a wild guess, let's say that maybe two-thirds of the Brooklyn Collect Library's MySpace friends are actual or potential users, roughly 1250. This is about 10% of Albany's undergraduate population.

A recent article in LibraryJournal.com, Google is Not the Net, describes an interaction between a student on MySpace and librarian Beth Evans that illustrates the potential value of establishing such social contacts.

It's such a simple thing to set up a presence on MySpace and see what happens.