Library 2.0

Back in October I said I was sick to death of Web 2.0. Since then, the meme, Library 2.0, L2 if you are in the in-crowd, has really taken off and discussion is happening everywhere. For example, see here , here, here, and here for what has been said recently. So, I'm I as turned off by Library 2.0 as I am by Web 2.0? No, not really.

While I felt that Web 2.0 had evolved into a marketing slogan, I feel that Library 2.0 is more of a change in thinking among some librarians, although certaintly not all. What is ironic is that the ideas and changes that fall under the label of former are a driving force behind the latter. That's good for now, but I think there needs to be more to the whole idea in the long run and perhaps we will see it as Library 2.0 matures and more people absorb its implications.

I said before that there are some positive changes resulting from Web 2.0; I mentioned that attention, identity, reputation, trust and people are new areas that are being taken seriously, but another important aspect is data. Where do libraries fit into this? How will they respond and in what manner? I'm not sure I'm in a position to answer that at this time. There are questions that I need to have answered before I can really see where this is going.

There are some things I can mention now. For example, if Library 2.0 is not about technology, then it surely is an important part of it. Who will be the coders and developers that create new services for partons, who enhance our interfaces to the OPAC by adding tagging, commentary, etc., Not all libraries have the good fortune to have these kinds of people on their staff, so what kinds of communities will emerge to develop and share these applications? Do we need to develop a community akin to the open source community where applications are created among skilled library technologists from around the world that can be easily used by any kind of library operating under a myriad of limitations. And, if we don't develop applications, which may not even be necessary, how do we support libraries everywhere who want to implement these kinds of changes to the services they offer? Will we rely on vendors and hope we have the good fortune that they roll out what is needed in their ILS systems and database interfaces or do we start now and create a community based support network?

I know that I'd like to see the answers, but I've yet to even see these questions asked seriously.