[Publib] Library 2.0?!

[Bonnie Sue Brzozowski]

I'm glad you mentioned this, Karen.  And I think it points to the fact that
Web 2.0 applications (or certain Web 2.0 applications) are not going to
appeal to all patrons right now or even seem particularly meaningful.  They
may currently appeal very little to entire patron bases.  But I don't think
this makes, at least, a librarian's awareness of and familiarity with them
unimportant.  Just as with anything, there are people who jump on the
bandwagon early, those who jump on late (sometimes it seems to me this group
includes a fair amount of public library computer users), and the people in
between.  I think it's extremely important for librarians to be in that
early bird group.  Granted, way-too-quick adoption can be extremely
problematic (what if the bandwagon never really takes off?) and of no value
to patrons, but if librarians keep themselves in-the-know they will be ready
for anything, be thinking of ways the technology could benefit them and
their patrons, and be thinking of the ways in which patrons may approach
them with assistance with the technology.  There's the potential for
Web 2.0applications to replace many desktop applications and it allows
users to
share so much content with one another; it is certainly worthwhile, if
within reason, for librarians to be trying these things out.  Also, it is
especially important for librarians to know about the bugs and problems too
(e.g.,
http://tech.msn.com/security/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=5002604&GT1=10138
).

Bonnie Brzozowski

Carrboro Cybrary
100 N. Greensboro St.
Carrboro, NC 27510
(919) 918-7387
http://www.co.orange.nc.us/library/cybrary/

On 7/5/07, K.G. Schneider <kgs at bluehighways.com> wrote:
>
> > Reinforcing my suspicion that a lot of 2.0-ness (tagging,, blogging,
> > video, audio, social whatever) appeals far, far more to librarians than
> > patrons!
>
> Your patron is making an important observation: this service is "outside
> the
> flow" (the patron's workflow for discovery and patron interaction). Why
> WOULD they use it?
>
> But let's set aside the whole 2.0 issue for a moment-it's a phrase that
> can
> be distracting. What if your catalog could seamlessly leverage social
> information, such as what a wide swath of the public thought of books-sort
> of like Novelist, but leveraging a large user community instead of a
> company's say-so?
>
> This actually is in work at Danbury Public Library, which has incorporated
> "Librarything for Libraries" into its catalog.
>
> Incidentally, for web searchers, the library's data is outside the flow,
> too; it's stuck inside a library database (the OPAC). Just an observation.
>
> Karen G. Schneider
> kgs at freerangelibrarian.com
>
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