Friday, July 11, 2008

Week 6:15 Library 2.0

I loved Rick Anderson's article, "Away From the "Icebergs."  He is dead on in relating the three icebergs that are looming to sink libraries.   The web has freed my small library budget from having to buy an ongoing series of expensive reference books and having to subscribe to a large number of magazines in order to build a comprehensive collection and try and meet real and potential information needs.   I agree wholeheartedly that search engines (databases) must be usable by patrons without comprehensive training.   Making the next step of placing more library services on the web and comprehensively integrating library services with patrons' needs at work, study and play.   It is interesting to have obtained a library degree 32 years ago and to be experiencing Library 2.0.  
Dr. Wendy Schultz's article, "To A Temporary Place in Time," describes libraries 1.0 (books warehoused), 2.0 (digital catalogs and downloads), 3.0 (3-D libraries--book avatars, anyone?) and 4.0 (real and virtual mind gyms, idea labs, art salons, holographic information theatres). Whew!  I have never been able to imagine the future but it is nice to glimpse it through the eyes of library futurists.  
I am not sure about the picture being visualized by "Where Will the Next Generation Web Take Libraries?"  The author states, "you and your mobile and non-movile devices--PDA, MP3, laptop, cell phone, camera, PC, TV, etc--are always online, connected to one another and to the Web."  I like my unconnected time.  :->

1 comment:

Katie said...

I love my unconnected time too but we have to at least understand the generation of the digital natives and their connectedness. I seem to live with two extremes. One has his computer set up to record his favorite TV shows; listens to music on iTunes while chatting with friends and cranking out homework that brings him straight A's. (mind you this mom wonders a bit about the rigor of the assignments) His sister goes for days w/out checking her email and forgets to take her cell phone 90% of the time...all in favor of reading a real book. How do we serve both extremes as well as those students w/out computers and a love of reading???