#17 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I found food for thought in Kelly Gardiner's Powerpoint presentation and in the articles by Rick Anderson, "Web 2.0 Where Will it Take Librarians?" and Dr. Wendy Schultz, "To a Temporary Place in Time". Rick Anderson reminds us that Web 2.0 technologies are forcing libraries to take their services out to the community (how long have we been told that we should be doing this!)in a way that integrates library services into users' online daily activities (via instant messaging, blogs, wikis, mashups of content etc.). The days of "just in case" collecting of hardcopy material are over, he tells us (hopefully not true of heritage collections, though of course their access is greatly enhanced, but it is certainly true for newspapers and serials as we have seen). Anderson argues that library services should not require training to use - debatable, but when you consider the low attendance figures of some of the SLV's LLL sessions, and the staff time taken to prepare and deliver these poorly attended sessions, perhaps he has a point. We need to be looking at ways of delivering this content online and at point of need - this should be easy peasy with Web 2.0 technologies! He also makes the point, encouragingly, that libraries shouldn't be adopting Web 2.0 technologies and applications just for status and to appear cool - they have to have a reason for being there and actually improve service delivery. As far as allowing users to add value, I've already noted my reservations on tagging. I would, however, like to see the Picture Catalogue's "Share What You Know About This Image" facility enhanced to make it more meaningful. As it stands, the Picture Collection staff have no way of being able to actually do anything with all the comments they receive, some of which are useful(?!) but if the comments could be viewed, and responded to, by all as per blogs, the Your Treasures site etc., it could develop into something more interactive and useful than it is now.

In conclusion, I liked the following comment by Dr. Wendy Schultz, "...as more information becomes more accessible, people will still need experienced tour guides - Amazon's customer recommendations are notoriously open to manipulation, tagclouds offer diverse connections, not focussed expertise." We're still needed, it seems, even if in the form of avatars as online mediators in her version of Web 3.0!