My-Spacing Out with MySpace

To start with, let me say that this Arapaho Library site from Colorado is a good example of how social sites can be used to more-or-less seamlessly draw young patrons into libraries. Since the environment is already familiar to them, and navigation is not a problem, this is a good idea. Libraries can certainly establish a presence this way. When I entered, I was asking myself, "where is that music coming from?" until noting the embedded player via http://www.myspace.com/zune That means that now teens on the computer at home might be asked by a parent to please "turn down the music" and respond that they are "at the library." Friends of this site are everyone from Lisa See to His Holiness the Dali Lama (or a site in his honor, perhaps?) The Arapaho library site has even been "friended" by The Library Fairy, a whimsical site replete with Celtic music, Youtube promotion of storytelling-in-libraries prowess, and from there a link to a Maya Angelou Tribute page, where one can hear Maya herself recite (in her glorious voice) "Phenomenal", via the embedded music player. I have yet to decode how I too can embed audio this way, but the link is here - http://www.myflashfetish.com/music-player/ In establishing my own account, there was some trepidation. How does one navigate? What are all these different zones, and why does it seem so chaotic? Like entering a cocktail party in full swing. Attacks of social anxiety followed. Eventually I found Groups (likeminded MySpacers into money, investing, the Arts, Islam, etc) Events (geared to the zipcode you enter as you join, it tells of a Don Quixote event at Symphony Hall in Phoenix, nightlife and events throughout the valley), and Classifieds.
Later I learned that Brooklyn College Library also is on MySpace, with an intriguing link to Nikoli Gogol’s own site “by” him. (Those who have read “The Namesake” know who Gogol is…) This site, by the way, takes you on to a plethora of artists and writers who, though they haven’t written in over a hundred years, lead active lives on myspace, rubbing shoulders democratically with students.