Library 2.0 (Exercise #15)

I read through all the articles since they were very short and found them to be very interesting. I really wanted to read the Wikipedia entry to see how maybe such a trend is seen by the outside world. It looks like it's had some input from librarians though. I liked the quote from Walt Crawford: "Library 2.0 comprises a combination of tools and attitudes which are excellent ideas and not new to librarianship, a few business- and tool-focused attitudes which will not serve all users and user communities, and incorrectly places libraries as the appropriate source for all users to gather all information." I think that Library 2.0 does mean that there is increased possibility for patron participation, which is great. But I always find it a little insulting when it's implied that libraries were never responsive to patrons' needs and wants before. Of course a patron can make their needs known a lot quicker and in a lot of cases changes can be made faster. Still it's unfair to say libraries never took their patrons' needs into account.

Out of all the OCLC Next Space Newsletter articles I liked the one by Michael Stephens because it wasn't looking at the trend as a whole but instead looking at what individual librarians can do and should be thinking about. I liked the balance that he shows. Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools and is a trendspotter, but Librarian 2.0 also controls technolust. I think it's always tempting to just embrace some new technology just because it's new without really thinking about whether or not it will be useful. I thought the last one about content was really interesting: "this librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." Definitely in the past the library's relationship to content was very different. Libraries provided content to patrons and that was the end of it, unless that content inspired the patron to write his or her own book. Now people can create their own content a lot more quickly. As libraries how will we preserve these new kinds of content? And how do we decide if all this content needs to be saved? I always wonder about things like blogs. In the past people would find old diaries in an attic, and if they seemed valuable enough they would end up in a Special Collections library. We have access to diaries that are centuries old. Will blogs last that long? What happens if Blogger goes bankrupt? Will my blog disappear?