It has been a a bad week in the media for Facebook as elements of the press point the finger of blame at the social network following the death of a teenager at a party at the weekend. Others have been asking “Should Facebook pay the police when it’s blamed for out-of-control parties?”.

As an antidote to that news, as one Facebooker put it, comes Facebook Stories which has been launched to highlight innovative uses of Facebook by a wide variety of groups and individuals.

The first issue features stories from Nasa, to how Tibetans are using it to preserve their language and customs, how a gathering of fish scientists came together, and how the distant Canadian territory of Nunavut is using Facebook to drive down the cost of food.

Facebook Stories is a nice addition that allows Facebook to pull out some of the best content that is being posted across the network, which is sure to give others ideas.

I liked the post by Carmela Ciuraru, the author of Nom de Plume: A Secret History of Pseudonyms, who explains the desire some writers have to disconnect separate themselves from their work – and recommends five great reads from authors who did just that.

The move sees Facebook take a leaf out of Twitter’s book. Twitter launched…Twitter stories almost a year ago and the idea was similar highlighting testimonials that showed some great uses of Twitter.

Facebook stories has a nice touch of celebrity here as well as Kevin Bacon makes an appearance in a post by Nicholas Arioli who explores the history of Six Degrees of Separation in Facebook’s first Facebook Stories podcast.

Apparently the number of stops between you and anyone else in the world (Bacon included) is even smaller.

As well as the featured stories showing this month Facebook Stories is also asking people to submit their own. Might have taken it a while to get this launched, but a nice addition.