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.
10:43 am on January 10th, 2006 1
Good post. I didn’t provide direct links for most cited posts (laziness, space, and the fact that they weren’t going to be live anyway). I knew yours was going to be the last post, as it hit just the right note to end that section–which would have been the end of the issue, until I realized that an Epilogue was called for. I figured it would be easy enough to find–you’ve made it even easier.
So you’re one of those people who actually want to be able to go to a building and check out books at convenient hours and a reasonably convenient location? What a concept! (I would note that my public library, which is sort of a “mixed model”–selfcirc machines but *also* a staffed circulation desk and *also* a ready-reference person sitting nearby–*is* open Sunday afternoon, a full day Saturday, and until 9 p.m. four weeknights. Only one location for a 75,000-person city, though–but there’s also a bookmobile, and Google’s buying the library a new bookmobile. Filled with books, that is.)
4:52 pm on January 12th, 2006 2
How about Library 666? We just have to make sure to put umlauts over the I and A in “Library.”
6:31 pm on January 12th, 2006 3
That would be much better. Umlauts make everything cool.