Princeton Public Library offers primer on ‘social’ cyberspace

By: Courtney Gross
   In an era when communication is confined to the mazes of cyberspace and dating is done through keyboards, many may wonder how to access a convoluted world where a mouse guides you through social situations.
   Some of those questions may be answered at the Princeton Public Library on Tuesday during a talk titled, "Social Software: Hype Versus Reality."
   Presented by the library’s programming coordinator and reference librarian, Janie Hermann, with the director of the Bradley Beach Library, Karen Klapperstuck, the event — the first of the new year for the library — is part of the library’s monthly Tuesday Technology Talks series.
   The series focuses on recent advances in technology as well as the issues that relate to those advances.
   Just as Time magazine called its person of the year "You" — a tribute to the online networks that burst through the social scene this year — the library program will attempt to teach attendees how to navigate and approach sites such as MySpace or Facebook.
   "MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are the most well-known of these sites," Ms. Hermann said in a prepared statement, "but social software in general is increasingly popular and has received unprecedented media coverage this year, as the recent issue of Time magazine proves."
   From teaching how to build one’s own profile to disclosing the myths associated with the sites, Ms. Hermann and Ms. Klapperstuck intend to reveal the openness and easy accessibility of these networks.
   The talk will also focus on the pros and cons of this new era of communication.
   "We’ll also provide tips for staying safe in online communities and examine what is hype and what is not about the dangers of connecting and collaborating in a virtual world," Ms. Hermann added.
   The event is free and open to the public. It will be held in the library Community Room beginning at 7 p.m.
   The following event in the technology series is with Martin Mosho on "eBay Essentials" — slated for 7 p.m. Feb. 6.