You Spoke: Facebook & MySpace

This is the fifth in a series of posts to respond to findings from the LibQual 2009 survey.

Several students wrote comments in the LibQual survey asking for the library to restrict the use of Facebook & MySpace on library computers. These students were frustrated that they couldn't find a computer to do classwork, because others were using them to update their Facebook or MySpace accounts.

While we sympathize with these frustrations, the library has not attempted to censor Internet access in the past, and we don't wish to do so in the future. It is difficult to implement a policy restricting certain websites, because it can be hard to know when to stop. Should we also restrict sites like YouTube? Also, many organizations at the university use Facebook and similar sites as a means to communicate; restricting access would cause difficulties to their members.

We remind all of our patrons that the library's primary mission is to support the educational goals of the university. All of our resources, including the computers, are intended to do that.