Okay, first things first: as a librarian, I know I'm not supposed to love Wikipedia. My uncle, whose hobby is asking me questions about libraries and books and research, recently asked me, "So what's the deal with Wikipedia? You really mean that ANYONE can edit it? What a bad idea!" I explained that there had been some controversies and like anything on the Internet, you have to consider your source, that Wikipedia has made some adjustments to just WHO can really edit the articles... but in reality, it's very often still the first site I check for basic trivia and ready reference type information. I wouldn't use it in a research paper, and I wouldn't tell a student to use it, either, but it can be a truly valuable resource when you are just getting started. Or if you have a question about something pop-culture or technology related. Or if you want a quick list of an author's published works instead of trying to sift through Amazon's search results. Or if you are bored and want to learn about dragons or history or where they filmed Casino Royale and how it fits into the overall story arc of James Bond.
But anyway, this Thing was not created so I can write about my own personal love of Wikipedia. At least I am fairly sure my fellow committee members didn't have that in mind. Wikis in general are pretty cool, and I have to also take a minute to say how much I love the Common Craft video about wikis. (Well, all of the Common Craft videos, really.) Wikis are things that maybe people have heard of, but I don't know a lot of people (even tech-savvy folks like myself) who actually USE them to share information. Which stinks, really, because wikis can be so useful for any sort of collaboration - having one for the reference department would be wonderful, in the same way that having all of our reference department links together in a del.icio.us account would be wonderful. The Library Best Practices wiki is something I haven't seen before this challenge. As someone who hasn't even been out of library school for a year yet, I still have a lot to learn about being a librarian. This is a great resource that I'm honestly going to have to bookmark and read through later, because I know I'm not internalizing it all now. But honestly, how cool is it that it's even out there? I <3 web 2.0, as nerdy as that means I am.
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The Reason We're Here: Library 2.0 and Thing #15
We've been talking about this web 2.0 thing for a while now, and we've talked about how many of these web 2.0 tools can help us in our work as librarians. But as Thing #15 reminds us, there has also been a lot of talk lately (in the blogosphere, among other places) about the notion of Library 2.0. I'm a big fan of most of this 2.0 stuff, but even I have to admit that it gets a little silly, making everything 2.0 this or 2.0 that. I don't know if it's that important that we label it "library 2.0", but rather that we just adjust how we think about libraries and our users and how we can best serve them.
Working in a busy urban branch like I do, my opinions of libraries have evolved. I suppose it goes along with the whole library 1.0/library 2.0 thing. I like a lot of the perspectives about what library 2.0 is. I particularly liked how Michael Stephens talked about how library 2.0 is user-centric. This was something that actually used to make me very angry in library school. In one of my classes, we read a lot of theory, and I distinctly remember reading an article (that was fairly recent) that talked about molding the library's services to what the users need and want as if that was groundbreaking rocket science type of stuff. It just seemed obvious to me. I know that isn't that old a concept for libraries, but honestly... how else will libraries EVER stay relevant? I mean, really.
I feel a bit like I'm writing in circles without saying much of use, but here's my basic opinion: Libraries definitely need to change some basic things in order to continue to be relevant. There needs to be some sort of vision of Library 2.0 (or just libraries NOW rather than how they always used to be). I don't personally think that libraries need to have cafes or be like bookstores with displays and hand selling. But I DO think that libraries need to pause a moment, think more about how users do research and connect with information in this Internet age. People are social. People like to collaborate. Like web 2.0 allows us to connect in new ways, libraries need to find new ways to make connections: between our users, with our users, and above all, between our users and information. That's why we're here in the first place. Information isn't just books anymore, and maybe our users can find some of it on their own, but we can still do so much as librarians to foster all of these connections. And that's why we need to be 2.0 librarians.
Working in a busy urban branch like I do, my opinions of libraries have evolved. I suppose it goes along with the whole library 1.0/library 2.0 thing. I like a lot of the perspectives about what library 2.0 is. I particularly liked how Michael Stephens talked about how library 2.0 is user-centric. This was something that actually used to make me very angry in library school. In one of my classes, we read a lot of theory, and I distinctly remember reading an article (that was fairly recent) that talked about molding the library's services to what the users need and want as if that was groundbreaking rocket science type of stuff. It just seemed obvious to me. I know that isn't that old a concept for libraries, but honestly... how else will libraries EVER stay relevant? I mean, really.
I feel a bit like I'm writing in circles without saying much of use, but here's my basic opinion: Libraries definitely need to change some basic things in order to continue to be relevant. There needs to be some sort of vision of Library 2.0 (or just libraries NOW rather than how they always used to be). I don't personally think that libraries need to have cafes or be like bookstores with displays and hand selling. But I DO think that libraries need to pause a moment, think more about how users do research and connect with information in this Internet age. People are social. People like to collaborate. Like web 2.0 allows us to connect in new ways, libraries need to find new ways to make connections: between our users, with our users, and above all, between our users and information. That's why we're here in the first place. Information isn't just books anymore, and maybe our users can find some of it on their own, but we can still do so much as librarians to foster all of these connections. And that's why we need to be 2.0 librarians.
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