Week 6 Thing 15: Library 2.0

The articles on Library 2.0 were very thought provoking. Their viewpoint concerned public libraries where the experience can be very different from school libraries. For those of us who are ready, willing, and excited to be embracing new technologies, Library 2.0 sounds great and is a great thing to give our patrons. My family members and friends are no strangers to computers and work with them on a daily basis. When I visited my sister and her husband, there were once a total of four computers in the living room and the TV was on, causing our father to shake his head and walk out in frustration. Yet, if they went to their library and found too many Library 2.0 type services instead of a straight "search and find a book" environment, I'm not sure how they would react. They might embrace it, or they might be on the phone to me to see what kind of library nonsense was going on and did I know how to use it. I know my dad would walk out in frustration and wait for me to come home. That's what he did when they put OPACs in. (Although I think he did figure it out himself, he's pretty adaptable.) The point of this is that not all patrons will embrace Library 2.0 so it's probably something to ease into. If a library has a budget like the one my town, it won't even matter. They're just lucky to have books.

In the schools, it's a bit different. My students could teach me as much about Web 2.0 applications as I could teach them about library skills. Therefore, I have to keep up to keep my students engaged. I have a large group of students who love to read and keep my circulation numbers up. I also know I have to compete with so many different technologies - computer games, texting, TV, video games, etc. I have to show them that the library, the information in it and accessed from it is relevant to them. I have del.icio.us sites and I finally have a web page. I plan to develop a wiki so that students can write reviews of books I also hope to have students create a del.icio.us site of the best reference sites to share with others in the school. As a CFF school, we have access to so much technology, it's becoming second nature to us. The most important thing is not to loose the message in the medium.

The irony of Library 2.0 being easier to implement in a school setting is that schools use filtering systems and many of the Web 2.0 aps don't always get through. We have a two tiered system now that allows teachers access to YouTube, flickr, and blogs but I don't know how many of them get through on the students' computers. We have a forward thinking administration that usually opens things up for us but it's not always the case in many districts.

Web 2.0 applications are getting more and more common, so it is inevitable that they are filtering into the library setting. Library 2.0 is here and it's up to us to make sure it impacts our library in the best and most productive ways possible. It would be foolish to use applications just to flaunt them but instead, we need to implement them wisely to enhance our programs and better serve our patrons.