This "Thing" was fascinating... all the facets of Library 2.0. As a person, I agree somewhat with Walt Crawford's thoughts in the section marked "The debate surrounding Library 2.0". Because I was formerly a school media teacher in Minneapolis, after reading these articles I began to wonder if these "tool-focused" attitudes and concepts will really be able to serve all users/user communities (the "external users"). Will the poor and/or uneducated among us reap any benefits from all this - i.e. will they have access to the opportunities, places and the education to learn how to use it... On the other hand, young people in particular are very quick to adapt if they are given the opportunity and tools, and are convinced there is something special in it for them :-)
As a librarian, it is exciting to learn about the potential opportunities this "movement" could bring. Encouraging user participation and feedback relating to library services offered, frequent evaluation and updating to meet new challenges of users, and ongoing innovation are all important, responsible goals. The need for libraries to adopt a strategy of constant change while continuing to promote participation by users will be a big challenge, however, but absolutely necessary, in order to take this out of the realm of "theory" and into reality. Concrete models and written plans will be absolutely necessary for many libraries to put these ideas in place.
I found a link to an article the other day on msn that speaks of new innovative things that academic libraries are already beginning to do. It can be found here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/2/19/opensource
Some of the thing mentioned are:
1. "Code4libr conference" - one idea to come out of this is for libraries to hire more developers rather than to continue to pay for products over which they have limited control. Some have been working on developing their own tools as a library instead of paying for an inflexible ILS. A couple of these innovative tools are the "extensible catalog (XC) project" - a web 2.0 oriented library catalog interface, and "VuFind" - a web catalog. These two will add a Web 2.0 functionality on top of the traditional interface.
2. "LibraryFind" - This tool is being developed at Oregon State University. It combines a federated search with a simple Google-like interface that lets users sort by relevance, save items, refine searches, and view electronic documents.
Blog Prompt # 2 - I am participating in "23 ThingsOn a Stick" because I realize there is a lot going on in the library world that I am not currently aware of. My MA is 4 years old and my MLS is 5 years old. A lot has change since I graduated... I hope to get more up to speed with current trends with this program.
Blog Prompt #3 - The Internet and the vast resource it can be has affected my use of time and work and home enormously. I now participate in several hobby listservs, as well as 2 others that are career-oriented. I have to plan every day, including weekends, to check messages for all these and archive/print/or save posts that are meaningful for me. This takes time and organization skills, but the ability to talk with and share ideas with others that have similar interests and abilities is so great that it is well worth the extra time and trouble! Never before have we been able to connect so quickly, if at all, with other people, and to gather valuable information. That to me is the greatest thing about the Web :-)
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2 comments:
I like the dog pix!
The item you referenced from the article about developing products sounds interesting. If a business/institution develops their own products it can be a lot easier for them to fulfill their own needs than if they had to buy a prepackaged product; especially if the product has a lot of expensive "extras" that aren't necessary.
The IT guys at my work develop several inhouse programs. If the programs need to be tweaked at some point, we just have the guys work on them instead of having to purchase upgrades.
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