This book by Cliff Landis, author of several library journal publications on librarians’ use of social networking websites, discusses the appropriate and effective use of such sites to reach library users while protecting privacy and intellectual property. Landis starts with a discussion of online networking’s popularity as well as an explanation of social and governmental issues, such as the passage of the Deleting Online Predators Act. Much of Landis’s advice on planning, implementing, marketing, and evaluating libraries’ use of sites such as MySpace and Facebook would be just as applicable to general library website development. The marketing chapter is quite good, describing branding, marketing plans, and “push-and-pull” marketing. The book also methodically describes how to set up Facebook and MySpace accounts, as well as how to create applications for the sites. The latter can get somewhat technical, but Landis provides good explanations of how to work with HTML.

But even with the book’s gentle pacing, the research that was put forth to write it, the companion wiki, and the podcast, its 88 black-and-white pages (not including the glossary, references, and index) are not worth the $55 price tag. Many inexpensive alternative guides to social networking sites are available, such as Carolyn Abram and Leah Pearlman’s Facebook for Dummies (Wiley, 2010) and Hupfer, Maxson, and Williams’ MySpace for Dummies (Wiley, 2008), to say nothing of available online resources. Robyn M. Lupa’s More than MySpace: Teens, Librarians, and Social Networking (ABC-Clio, 2009) presents the programming and instructional possibilities, as well as the privacy issues, of conventional social networking sites, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and wikis. Lupa’s work is content-rich, and it costs only $40. Most librarians setting up and using a Facebook or MySpace page, even in an isolated geographic area, could receive assistance from a colleague or an online source in lieu of Landis’ book. Much of the content on planning, marketing, and evaluating could be picked up from a good library website development book. This title is one of Neal-Schumans’ ten-volume $550 Tech Set series. As with any series title, it might appear better if evaluated as part of the set rather than in isolation. This book’s content is valuable, though mostly unoriginal, and is available via other less expensive sources. A Social Networking Primer for Librarians is recommended only if it can be purchased at a deep discount.