Perspectives of Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

I read all the different perspectives of Library 2.0, and while everyone has the general idea - to promote new and interactive technologies into library service - everyone's view is shaped by the position they hold. Rick Anderson who is the Director of Resource Acquisition at the Univ. of Nevada has a very bold opinion of the direction of libraries. He must remember, however, that the college environment with students who have grown up using technologies and who are there to research is very different from a public library setting. Those who use the library for their classwork might not need a printed book. They carry around many items and textbooks as it is. Students might prefer palm readers and other electronic resources. People who use the public library often are there for books that they can curl up with and savor. While we might change the way we look at selection and retention guidelines and add more electronic resources, we cannot alienate those who cannot or will not use or want everything on a computer. He says "Our patrons have no such qualms" about letting go of past practices and attitudes. I firmly disagree with this statement. Just a few weeks ago a patron said "librarians who don't use a card catalog aren't real librarians".
Anderson lists 3 icebergs as barriers to future success. His first iceberg of the "just in case collection" is something to be evaluated. In the future, books may never go out of print. It could be all print on demand. His second iceberg suggests that there is not enough staff to train every patron, so we should spend our time eliminating all barriers. I agree with this, although sometimes even the simplest tasks can be complicated for many of our patrons. This again is not a university setting, and we must always remember we are here to serve those of all levels and abilities. We should make things as simple as possible, but make time to help those who need it. Unfortunately, people who do not work with the public on a daily basis tend to overestimate the level of user education. We must be a vital part of this community and help bring those who have no computer skills to a functioning level. Anderson's third, and final iceberg, is the "come to us" model of library service. To compete for dwindling government money, and be known in the community as a relevant public institution, we must market ourselves and show all the library has to offer.
Personally, I feel we must advance in the Library 2.0 arena, while always asking ourselves why we want to implement new technology. Are we trying something new just appear we are on the cutting edge? We should analyze the cost of new technologies versus the benefit to the whole. We should also keep on training the staff and the public in web 2.0 areas. I think the direction the library should be going next is making our web presence more dynamic and interactive. I feel that many currently on our staff could be entrusted with upkeeping book lists on our websites, developing wikis, and working on blogs for various aspects of YPL's service. I would like to see wikis and blogs for children, teen, various fiction genres, grants, business, genealogy, local history, etc. I feel we should have places where patrons can give their reviews and have book discussions online. Allowing the community to be a part of the library's web presence might go far in giving them a greater sense of ownership.

Technorati

I vaguely remember Technorati from #9. I didn't find it very interesting then. I do understand the whole blogging and Technorati idea better now. I can see it's purpose in the social networking blog universe. I do not wish to claim my blog at this time (or add searchable tags). I feel this blog is more for work and for people I know to see it. I doubt it would be very interesting to the entire world.

Del.icio.us

At first I thought del.icio.us would be another of those things that I would never use, but after using it to find information about the harmful chemical in plastic baby bottles, I think I might use it after all. Instead of writing down all the links I might want, I can just bookmark them and access them from anywhere. I actually did have an account with a website when I first started working here that keep sites bookmarked (no tagging though), but I can't even remember now what the name was. I also found in the popular/new science tags how to make a tomato glow. Very interesting. I can see the value of this in research quite easily. See my del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us/starrbug

LibraryThing and Rollyo

Did the LibraryThing. Set up an account and put in some of Cameron's books. I probably won't ever use this. I know what books I have, and don't really need to share. It is a neat idea though.
Here is a link to a Rollyo search http://rollyo.com/starrbug/parenting/
I don't know that I will really use this either. You still get other garbage stuff on the page. I can see it's merits. I also did one for getting bibliographic information for 416's http://rollyo.com/starrbug/my_book_buying/ I really don't know if this will save time over using bookmarks or not?