Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Thing #16 - Thoughts on Library 2.0

First of all, I can only hope to someday have a bit of the understanding of the library world as it relates to web 2.0 as these authors do. Obviously I am too mired in the mundane to think like a philosopher!
My biggest fear is that the portion of our community that really "gets" all this has already forgotten the library as an irrelevant dinosaur filled with musty books. Even making some attempts at 2.0 interaction and repackaging won't attract that segment back through our doors, physically or virtually.
I do think that libraries have long excelled at meeting our patrons where they are and these new tools only make for another way to reach out beyond our physical space to offer service. But in our community there still seems to be such a wide range of technological skill and expectations to deal with. I had 2 members of my Friends of the Library Board say last week that they really wanted the card catalog back, but we are helping people program their phones on our public computers and beginning to get asked which library resources are compatible with hand held devices. That almost feels like all of human history being thrown at us at once, with no more resources and the same number of man hours (or woman hours as the case may be!)
I want to embrace all of this and figure out how to improve service to our community using these tools, but sometimes it is just overwhelming.

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