Library's Facebook Profile Shut Down

(November 2007:  Facebook launched Facebook Pages which libraries can use to create profiles.  This post is now outdated.)

For those of you experimenting with Facebook, I want to give you a word of caution.  The University of Kentucky Libraries created a Facebook profile for the library back in July. We created the profile as yet another place to find library contact information and basic library information. We were quite hopeful in starting a dialogue with students as we continued to add friends and promote the Facebook profile through freshmen orientation classes and other means. On Wednesday when I tried to log onto the profile, I got the message that it had been disabled by an administrator. What follows below is the correspondence I had with Facebook’s technical support.

As it stands now, we are unable to log into our profile and so far they have refused to reinstate even temporary access in order for me to retrieve our Notes, Photo Albums, and other information. As you can imagine, it would be really great to have this content so that I can at least create a Facebook group for the library.

The implication is, to me at least, that all library profiles are threatened and at some point may be shut down. I just wanted everyone to be advised, and I’ll provide updates on our situation as I have them – we are still attempting to get a few specific answers from Facebook. In the meantime I am working on creating a Facebook Group  for the University of Kentucky Libraries.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXX from Facebook [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:20 PM
To: Greenwell, Stacey
Subject: [rt.facebook.com #788092] Account disabled

Hey Stacey,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Facebook profiles are intended for use by a single individual. Groups, clubs, and other types of organizations are not permitted to maintain an account. I apologize for the inconvenience, but you will no longer be able to use this account. I will not be able to reinstate the account under a different email address.

As I said before, if you would like to use Facebook to bring your organization together and coordinate activities, we offer a Groups feature. Facebook Groups allow people to come together to express objectives, discuss issues, post photos, etc. If you have a personal Facebook profile, you can create one these groups from that account. The option to 'Create Group' is available at the bottom of the My Groups page.

Thanks for contacting Facebook!

[Thu Sep 21 06:13:55 2006]:

Hello,

After having our profile disabled yesterday, we did some research and found another instance of a library profile being turned off. His profile was re-instated as a personal account. Could we please ask to be reinstated as a personal account so we can retrieve our content (photo albums, notes, etc)?

We would also like to register a complaint about this policy. First, we do not believe that your Terms prohibit organizational profiles. The terms do specify "personal, non-commercial use only", but we believe that our profile satisfies this requirement. We represent the University of Kentucky Library - the profile represents actual humans, and we make no attempt to disguise our identities. We provide contact information and have created additional separate profiles for several of the librarians who contribute to the main Library profile. We're not selling anything. Please send us the specific section of the terms that you believe we have violated.

We also believe that an interpretation of the terms that prohibits university libraries from having a Library profile is counter-productive. Facebook is focused on creating an institutional identity. A university library has a place within this network.

Several libraries around the country have created Facebook profiles and had a very positive response from the students, faculty and staff who have individual profiles. Our profile had been active only a couple of months and we already had 50 friends. Libraries are a growing presence on Facebook. Several blogs, articles and discussion lists cite numerous libraries with profiles and the positive response they are seeing from patrons. Search for "Library" and you'll find 82 names on Facebook accounts across many networks. (And we doubt even one of those represents a human whose mother named him "Library".)  Librarians love Facebook.

We appreciate the suggestion to form a group to serve as the Library profile, but that option is not satisfactory. We want people to know that our profile is the institutional profile. We don't want to be yet another one of the 70 library "groups" already available in the Kentucky network. If a Facebook user searches for a library group within the Kentucky network, we will be sandwiched between organizations like "Library Hoes" and "I Get My Drink On In the Library". Before we were shut down, searching for Library in the Kentucky network brought up one name: Ours.

Libraries are just beginning to get involved with social networking, so the true benefit of our involvement in this arena has yet to be seen. It's unfortunate that Facebook is beginning to crack down on a new use of your site that in no way violates the intent of your terms (we are NOT misrepresenting ourselves) and which may in fact serve to promote your service and be a benefit to your users. We ask that you reconsider. Please reply to this request or let us know if we should contact someone else at Facebook.

----Original Message-----

From: XXXXXXXX from Facebook [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 5:28 PM
To: Greenwell, Stacey
Subject: [rt.facebook.com #788092] Account disabled

Hey,

Fake names are a violation of our Terms of Use. We do not allow profiles that represent organizations. We encourage you to use Facebook groups to serve your purpose.

Thanks for contacting Facebook.

---

UPDATE:  This is the final correspondence I received from Facebook:

I regret to inform you that we will not be able to comply with your request.  The account has been permanently disabled.  Thanks for understanding. 

I've been experimenting with the Group feature for a few weeks now and it's just not the same.  What do I miss?  Having friends, for one.  If someone joins our group, our group is buried under a whole bunch of other groups in the individual's profile.  When we were a profile, we were front and center with the individual's friends.  When we were a profile, we had Interests and Activities and Notes--now I'm forced to cram all that stuff on the Wall which just doesn't work very well.

The thing that bothers me most about being denied access to the profile one last time is that we lost all our friends.  Friends we'd worked hard to collect--I know most of my library orientation class befriended us after a very enthusiastic presentation, and I know other librarians feel the same.  I've been slowly inviting people who were once our friends to join our group, but it's still not the same.  Facebook, we are disappointed!

---

UPDATE TWO:  Another thing I dislike about the Facebook group is not knowing when there is activity on the group.  With the profile, we'd get an email when we got a new friend or wall post.  We must have had a flurry of activity yesterday, as when I checked this morning, we had a wall post and 38 group members. 

I miss changing our picture, as well.  The Wildcat posed for a number of promotional pictures we use for freshmen orientation classes, and it was great to switch our profile photo to one of those many pictures.  Sometimes when you see a friend has a new profile photo, you are inclined to click on the profile and see what's new--something else we've definitely lost with the group.

Comments

[Christina Pikas]

That is so not cool. Especially since you won't be able to retrieve your information. Is there a way you can appeal to someone higher at the company? Maybe you can write a letter to the CEO?

[stacey.greenwell]

A formal letter is definitely one of our next steps. What concerns me so much is that other libraries are spending time on creating and publicizing profiles, and it's likely they'll be shut down at some point, too. We have created a group, UK Library on Facebook, but we have to work on rebuilding the content. Our profile was up to nearly 80 friends (~50 students on campus, the rest librarians or faculty) so it will be hard to get those back. I got a lot of positive response when mentioning our Facebook profile in freshman orientation last month--from "that's cool" to "seriously? wow." Losing the profile is so frustrating, considering we were really using this social network for what it was intended--to reach out to others on campus and to share information about ourselves.

[Angel]

This does not sound very encouraging. That last note from the FB person is not exactly, friendly. I already had misgivings about FB as it was, but I was interested in seeing what some of the libraries were doing. It sounds like we may have to stay away from FB, and lucky us we did not set a profile. I can see it would be frustrating to make the effort only to lose it all. Then again, the disadvantage of dealing with someone else's product.

I got here from the Unit Structures blog.

Best, and keep on blogging.

[stacey.greenwell]

Angel, thanks for your comments and I hope this doesn't discourage you from trying out Facebook. It's a great tool when used responsibly, and I think libraries should continue to create groups (just not profiles, apparently). I preferred the profile to the group as the profile allows you to display more information, including notes (like blog posts, just not syndicated). The group is growing on me however -- best thing about it is that you can message all members. Might be a good way to start a conversation with your users.

[Nancy Kellett]

Our library profile at FSU was shut down for the same reason. A group is not a satisfactory replacement.

[Hector Escobar]

Our profile for the University of Notre Dame Libraries was disabled over this weekend. I have sent an initial email to Facebook administrators inquiring as to why it was disabled, but I suspect the same reasons as those that have already been taken down. A real sad and depressing move on the part of Facebook if you ask me. I would have hoped this tool could have fostered communication between our library and undergrads, but sadly Facebook ruined that idea. Boo on Facebook! And yes, having an insterest group is definitely not a replacement by any means.

[Amanda Werhane]

Wendt Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was shut down today, too. I had connected with almost 600 students through our online persona, and now we've lost those connections, as well as all Wall posts, notes, events, etc. I'm in a little period of mourning right now...

[Lucas Hawkins]

I'm really disappointed in facebook over this one. Especialy at the lack of service and politeness of there customer service. I guess it has a lot to do with them being such a young company and being inexperienced with dealing with people. hopefully this will change in the nere future. Meanwhile I think it would be a great idea to start a protest group to raly against this to get the company's attention.

[Scott Steele]

I'm the coeditor for a college literary magazine. We have a very limited budget and one of the great ways to advertise our online issues and request submissions was through the facebook flyers. I was having trouble with getting one to work and so I emailed their tech support. Now, tonight, I found out with absolutely no warning that we were disabled. I had no clue whatsoever that they had a clause against noncommercial profiles and it seems very unreasonable of them. As well, I had just purchased two other flyers which I very much doubt will run now. It'll be hard to get reimbursed for them if they're not going to run, and also, we're working on a deadline so I won't have time to set them up on my own account until Saturday.
I think the way we and other people who have commented on this site were treated was very unprofessional, and the policy itself is an ill-advised and poorly advertised one.
If anyone here is in or knows of a group that is protesting this policy, please email us about it at "thesiren" at "tcnj" dot "edu".

[Brett VanBenschoten]

Yet another college library Facebook profile bites the dust. I too, was informed to use the groups section, lol.

Maybe I'll legally change my name to Occidental OxyChatReference. Then I can call it a personal account.

[JD MacDonald]

I think Facebook should be forced to release your content. According to their TOS, they seem to believe that they can ban you and still own your content. Maybe it's about time for a class-action lawsuit, huh?

[jenny]

close down facebook, its only trouble

[Nick]

Facebook needs to be shutdown!

[Gabriel Leblanc]

I agree Facebook dose have some harsh terms. But for a student like myself who lives 45 minutes away from my school and friends, Facebook is a very good tool. as long as you follow the terms like every similar site has, you will have no problem. I ask that you stop complaining about the terms and condisions and start to be considerit towards the people who use it for a good cause.

[Mr Confused]

I'm confused what yall are crying about. It seems you don't understand the function of facebook and want to make sure to use it in a way that doesn't comply with how it was built. Grow up, businesses, bands, other orgs all use it the way it needs and should be used, but you feel since your a public org IE library if gives you right to cry more about why your being censored. I run three different orgs on facebook all setup for different people and they love the result, if you want more for your library take action through facebook applications and create one for the library that gives you access to the things you want most. There has to be someone in your vast network of library friends that has the skills to help you with this if it seems to complicated. I dont feel pitty for you, all this post sounds like is a pity party for you and others who dont understand the facebook system and feel jipped when you try to violate its usage. If i were an admin at facebook, i would have taken the exact same action, if you cant learn to use facebook like everyone else in the millions of members, maybe you should think about not being a part of it, just dont waste peoples time crying about it.

[N. A. Courtney]

If they sent you a reply stating their policies for having an account on Facebook, and you still want to do things "YOUR WAY", I can't check out a book without a library card, I could take the book and just return it later, but that would be against the law. You're in a library for crying out loud read a law book. If you sign up for a service and agree to those terms that's a contract and you have to abide by the terms of the contract. If you violate the contract your account should be terminated. You want to use the service but you don't want to abide by the terms of use like everyone else. That's a lawless type attitude.

[stacey.greenwell]

I think a lot of these recent, rather strident comments are missing the point of the original post. Keep in mind that the original post is over a year old, long before Facebook apps even existed.

Our argument was that Facebook should reconsider its terms of service and allow campus organizations the ability to create profiles to better provide information and communicate with interested students. I don't see this as "crying" or as having a "lawless type attitude." Nor is it a "pity party." We have happily continued using Facebook groups for the past year, though we still feel the profile option would be better for everyone involved.

[Anthony Browne]

Are you aware that Facebook have now made provision for public libraries and other public building to be listed. This gives you back your friends, in the form of "fans" and you can use mini-feeds, info, the wall and the discussion board. Check out Brooklyn's as a good example.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5767266707
Add your library here
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

[Stacey Greenwell]

Thanks, Anthony. We have heard of this--in fact I created a profile for the University of Kentucky the very first day Facebook Pages launched! I have blogged about it on this blog but your comment reminded me that I should probably update this post. Thanks again and happy Facebooking!

http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/itbloggingsection/2007/11/facebook-pages-.html

[historia powszechna]

This info is very interesting. Mozna sie duzo dowiedziec, choociaz nie rozumiem niektorych wyrazen :))

[J. Davis]

I've said it before but I'll go ahead and say it again. You knew the terms provide for a personal profile, and yet you went ahead and made a profile for a whole library? Your reasonings do not hold up. If you knew what the terms were why did you bother? You were practically asking for a ban. I've held a Facebook account for quite some time and I am much happier with it than any other social networking site. I've never had a single spam message (tons on MySpace and Friendster), never had a band try to get me to add them as a friend (tons on MySpace, only one or two on Virb.com) and I'm damn glad for that. So I can't screw around, so what? Facebook is a serious networking site with strict requirements. How many accounts do you think live on every day because they just did the right thing and didn't make an account for a stuffed cow or other inane thing, or a group of people even though the terms forbid it? You knew the terms and you got booted for them, so why are you complaining?

P.S.
Read a comment saying you added your library to Facebook Pages, awesome! The Pages feature is well deserved.

[Nieves Gonzalez]

Excuse me, but, I would like to know why you allow some libraries have facebook pages, but another don't. Please, what I have to do for belong to the first group?