Library 2.oh

Hi! If you’re looking for the post mentioned in the Library 2.0 Issue of Cites & Insights, here it is – Library 360. I enjoyed reading Walt‘s overview of the Library 2.0 meme, which has certainly spread all over the biblioblogosphere. I liked the timeline and blog post round-up as there were quite a few posts I’d missed reading before.

I’m not sure if I’m finding the whole thing to be very meaningful to me personally. It seems like many people are writing Library 2.0 commentary and manifestos, but I’m not seeing many practical applications, or even proposals or roadmaps for practical applications. Web2.0 at least has gmail and flickr and other social software applications to point to as examples. I think that the Library 2.0 thing might come in handy for people who want a conference presentation with buzz.

I still find the whole thing very amorphous even after reading a list of reasons why “it” exists. I think it is very easy for those of us who are comfortable with libraries and technology to automatically assume that just because we’re doing something new, it needs to be transferred to library patrons. The latest development in social software is probably not of much interest to the average public library patron, and I don’t think it should be. As a library patron, I don’t want my public library to be “2.0”, I just want it to be open on the weekends during the summer so I can actually be able to go there and check out books. I think the example over at Information Wants to be Free of a library stocked with popular fiction at a mall does much more to make the library more relevant to people than any kind of technology.