Friday, November 16, 2007

Week 6 # 15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

With Web 2.0, users can interact and participate on the web rather than simply “look things up”. The term Library 2.0 is deliberately similar to Web 2.0, and implies that as the web is going, so are library services, which must be frequently updated to meet the changing needs of library users. The active library user is an indispensible aspect of Library 2.0 - with information and ideas flowing bilaterally, library services have the ability to evolve and improve on a constant and rapid basis. All this is wonderful, but it also relies on patrons having good computer skills – skills which have to be picked up elsewhere because the average public library simply doesn’t have the resources to tutor all customers. And as anyone who has worked in circulation is aware, there are patrons who panic even at the suggestion that they consult the OPAC, so the contents of the library have actually become less accessible to them. (Maybe you have to think no further than your own elderly relatives.) Will these people simply be left behind? Is the gap between the computer literate and computer illiterate becoming unbridgeable?

I marvel at all the things I have become aware of just since starting ACL Learning 2.0, and sometimes have the feeling I am just clinging to the bottom of the knowledge ladder, never mind climbing it. This leads me to wonder whether people are actually becoming cleverer. Where was all this creativity channelled before the computer age?

From my own point of view I can see that there is great potential for streamlining and sharing cataloguing with greater web participation. The library of today has changed from being a physical collection guarded by a librarian to digital downloads and uploads, and a participatory exchange of information.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Interesting food for thoughts, I think the learning curve as far as technology is concerned is definitely getting faster