Allowing ‘Orkut’ in School libraries

Being the most popular social network website in India, Orkut is getting more acceptance amongst teenagers. A daily dose of orkuting is a must for many teenagers.

Although they are chatting with friend sitting nearby, they make it a fun not a necessity. Many eyebrows are raising thinking that as a whole these social networks are a waste of time and hindrance to physical one to one communication.

Many children fake their age to get membership on these websites. A class six, pretends that he is of 18, a boy says on his profile that he is a girl like that.

Cyber bullying is a matter of concern. Online predators follow the suit.

Staying safe on Orkut or any other social networks is a matter of utmost importance in this age of cyber crimes.

Many school libraries around the world ban orkut or other social networks. But many more libraries take this as an opportunity. There are orkut accounts for libraries and that act as an information and publicity tool. The concept is converting the library into more social, interactive and human and thereby attracting more users. Clearly these libraries with Orkut accounts can not ban that for their users.

The choice lies on the library policy makers.

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