Week 6, Thing #15: Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

After reading the Discovery Resources for this Thing, I feel like my head is spinning.
Here are some of the ideas that seem important to me:

Rick Anderson's caution about "responding to every change in the zeitgeist" vs. "failure to adapt to fundamental change in the marketplace". It is often hard to discern which area a new concept falls into. I think this happens frequently in education as we try the latest educational theories.

Michael Stevens' observation that "content is a conversation". This is why we want user participation and feedback and why tagging is becoming so important. This conversation is an important part of Library 2.0.

Michael Carey (LibraryCrunch) notes that "constant change is replacing the older models of upgrade cycles". I have enjoyed Mr. Carey's thoughts on Library 2.0. He believes a big part of Library 2.0 is "harvesting ideas and products from peripheral fields that can then be integrated into library service models to improve existing services and create new services, and then continuing to examine and improve these services without being afraid to replace them at any time with newer and hopefully better services". That is certainly quite a challenge.
LibraryCrunch has also started an OPAC Wishlist that takes Web2.0 concepts and applies them to library catalogs. Here is the current list:

FEATURE (GOOD EXAMPLE OF SERVICE)

• Saved Bookmarks (Delicious)
• Starred (user) ratings (Amazon)
• User Reputations (iKarma)
  
• User recommendations -- narrative (Amazon)
• User tagging -- keywording (Flickr)
• Saved titles (Netflix)
• Search history (Google Toolbar)
• Suggest to friends (Amazon)
• Wish List (Amazon)
• RSS Aggregator (Netvibes)
• Contacts, Friends and Family Network (Flickr)
• To-Do list (Backpack)
• Note-taker / word-processor and collaborator (Writely)
• Email with large storage capacity (Gmail)
• Live search suggestions (Google Suggest)
• User-modifiable web pages (GreaseMonkey scripting)
  

Library 2.0 is a way for library users to have more participation in the way library services are offered and used. It might mean letting library users leave comments about books on a wiki or in the actual catalog, or letting users write reviews, tags, and ratings to share with other users. It is about bringing library service to people on the internet and using new tools that encourage user participation. I think that we all see library service changing and moving towards Library 2.0. But that makes me wonder if Library 3.0 will be far behind. These are exciting times for librarians and library users.
More information is available from the Horizon Report 2008, which examines emerging technologies and education and provides links to examples.