East Renfrewshire on Facebook

East Renfrewshire has become the first council in the UK to join the social networking site Facebook.

The council has launched pages for each of its ten libraries, theatre and four sports centres. These pages carry information on opening times and facilities, but also contain discussion boards where users can leave comments, interact with staff, discuss their favourite books or even seek computing advice from other users.

As well as viewing this information, Facebook members can receive a range of updates such as upcoming events, special offers, photos and newsletters.

Community services convener, Councillor Mary Montague said: “We wanted to be able to create a way of letting the UK’s 7.5 million Facebook users interact with our services and to access information about the range of leisure time activities available in East Renfrewshire.

“It also creates a forum for discussion where users can tell us what they like and don’t like about the services so that we can keep improving and providing a service everyone in East Renfrewshire can be proud of.

“There are many advantages of becoming a fan of our pages from meeting like minded people in your area to finding out when tickets go on sale for 'hot' events like Jed Rubenfeld and Jodi Picoult, who are two of the UK’s biggest selling authors appearing in our theatre this season.”

Although just launched, the pages have already received a number responses, including one from an American Facebook user who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

From the main East Renfrewshire Council Facebook page you can visit each library's own individual page. You will need to be a member of Facebook before you can view these pages.

Read the Scotsman article on East Renfrewshire and Facebook.

Find out more at our Facebook Explained page.