The Cyber Library - Is there one on your e-block?

For a grade, course credit and personal edification, I’ve just spent about 100 hours in two weeks immersed in the current state of digital history online and it’s successes and failures on the Web 2.0 front. I’ve viewed and reviewed so many sites  in the context of their use of new web technologies that I would be crazy to do another project where I had to evaluate sites in the context of their use of new web technologies…wouldn’t I? Yet here I’m am, ready to ride the 2.0 merry-go-round again.

Moving from history and historic collections to library services should be as easy as taming that pink fiberglass beast on the carousel - the one with the perpetually reared head, the startled snarl and the hard, hard saddle. In fact, doesn’t that filly look a little like your friendly neighbourhood librarian when confronted with yet another new technology that has to be implemented RIGHT NOW on the library website so that the kids will remember that the library exists - and that it’s a rad/dope/sick/wicked place to be?

Maybe it’s because I’m in library school, but there seems to be a lot of talk around about keeping up with technology, and our duty as information professionals to make the latest IT trends our own. The recent CIBER study on the “google genera tion” and trends in information literacy, was a fascinating piece of research and reporting that debunked many popular myths. (I would highly recommend that you read it if you’re at all interested in the subject. If you’re not, I think you might still find it interesting, but I’m not going to make you read it) They had this to say about using Web 2.0 in an information literacy context:

“there are clearly dangers in trying to appear ‘cool’ to a younger audience. In fact, there is a considerable danger that younger users will resent the library invading what they regards as their space. There is a big difference between ‘being where our users are’ and ‘being USEFUL to our users where they are’.”

That attitude seems to lack a little bronco spirit, if you ask me. While I’m not as gushingly enthusiastic as seems to be required by the Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto, I believe that Web 2.0 has a place in today’s libraries. Beyond just the desperate ploy to drag unwilling participants into be unwittingly educated, these new technologies are exciting to both kids and adults, can be used in thoughtful and fun ways, and - most importantly - allow for greater participation in the life of libraries.

However, adding a wiki or a chattering blog without clearly seeing how these tools can enhance your organization’s mandate or improve the experience of your users - without being “USEFUL”, as pointed out above by CIBER - does not seem like the best use of the technological or human resources involved.

So I’m willing to saddle up again, to ride the high web plains and low e-valleys ’round, looking for thoughtful implementations of Library 2.0 - examples of libraries that have used these tools to provoke people to read more, learn more, and share more.