Blog 15 - Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

When I first started this program and mentioned to a friend what it was, I only had the vague impression of what library 2.0 and web 2.0 were. When I took her to the main website for the “O! What a Geek” program, they specified that this program involved both. Seeing as neither of us knew exactly what either program is, we had to look it up on Wikipedia (a great site if you just want to get an overview of something, but if you want actual facts, it’s best to double check any you get from there). As soon as we read the description of library 2.0 she said “That’s what libraries have been doing for the past 40 years.”

And she’s right – in a way. The past years have been spent using computers and technology to make information more accessible and while the internet has been around longer than most people think, it has only been readily accessible to the general public for the past 10 or 15 years. Changing from a physical card catalog and checkout system to automated systems on computers was a big step but I don’t think they were originally created to allow for home use. And that’s what library 2.0 is supposed to be about – taking the library to the user, aka home. There is a difference between making information available via technology in the library and making information available via technology in the home.

I’m a little undecided about this. I suppose library 2.0 is just another label for the next step in library technology, an inevitable step that follows what has been worked up to in libraries for the past hundred years. I’m not sure I like the label of Library 2.0. Perhaps I’m just too hung up on the separation of types of technology, I see just see it as a continuation of what we’ve been building up to not some revolutionary ‘new’ way of thinking about the library. This could just be because I’m a relatively new person to libraries (6-8yrs give or take a few months) and I am rather geared toward technology/computers in the first place so when I started working in libraries I saw reaching out to patrons at home as an obvious part of working in a library – making things easier and more accessible to our patrons via whatever new technologies are available.

Once again, that made no sense did it? I seem to be having trouble expressing myself. Sigh.