Friday, September 28, 2007

15- Web 2.0, Library 2.0

Wow, after a lot of doing, and some thinking, a lot of reading, digesting and thinking. And now blogging....
I think Walt Crawford raises some good points about what's hype and what's real, is Library 2.0 mainly about technology, is it really about what it's always been about for libraries, etc. But I don't like his tone....

I see Library 2.0 as the technology of Web 2.0 applied to the (public) library setting to continue to serve patrons in to the future. It includes patron-generated content (rating of materials, tagging, blogging or at least commenting on library blogs, wikis) interacting with patrons using newer technology applications (IM reference, del.icio.us tagging vs/ in addition to Internet links, text message alerts, RSS feeds of library and more content) information/education/enrichment delivery via nta- e-video, downloadable audiobooks, etc.
Gaming at the library, why not, as long as I don't have to DDR myself or supervise it (hee, hee....)

Second Life I have trouble with, both literally, my computer is too old, or lost it's memory or something, never could get it to dowload correctly, of course my 24-year-old son ran in to the same problem with his less than a year-old laptop- and less literally- I don't know that our patrons really want to interact with us there, nor do I think that all teens really want their public library to friend them on myspace, especially when their public library is old enough to be their mother.

I certainly think that whatever Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are exactly, it's very much worth looking at least 23 things that can possibly be implemented to benefit our patrons. And just because Library/Web 2.0 proponents sometimes contradict each other and even themselves, doesn't mean they're, in essence wrong, Walt....

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