For the first part of my assignment, I read Tim O'Reilly's definition of what Web 2.0 is. Although I was familiar with the concept, this was the first time that I had read a concise definition of Web 2.0. O'Reilly's definition was interesting, but I think even more interesting were the comments made by other readers. I think that many of them expressed the same misconceptions that I had had about Web 2.0, most notably the two posters who said that Web 1.0 was about computers connecting to other computers, while Web 2.0 is about people connecting to other people. O'Reilly's response to that was very interesting to me, in that he said that 2.0 is really the opposite of what these posters had said. Although Web 2.0 is certainly about keeping the user in mind, it's really about allowing computer-generated webpages to replace hand-generated, static webpages. Web 2.0 is about user convenience, but it's also about allowing computer programs to do some of the work.
But what does this have to do with libraries? To answer that question, I read many of the articles about Library 2.0. The most interesting of these to me was the list by the Other Librarian of the ten things libraries can do to become L2. I think it was really helpful to have a list of practical things that libraries can and should do. And I agreed that most of the things were simple and "no-brainers," such as installing Firefox on the public computers. Personally, I really dislike Internet Explorer as a browser and don't use it on my home computer (although, as a Mac user, I'm a Safari fan!), so I'm all for a more user-friendly browser at work. As the Other Librarian noted, though, some of the other suggestions were a little more problematic, such as allowing gaming and instant messaging on public computers. What do librarians do if this kind of use begins to disturb other patrons? The Other Librarian's suggestion was to keep copies of the library's appropriate use policy on hand, but does this mean we are going to have to be constantly scolding patrons and settling disagreements? I don't think that fosters the kind of L2 environment that we want.
There is clearly a lot of work ahead of us if we want our library to go L2, and I'm sure that eventually, we'll get all of these issues worked out. It might take awhile, but I'm certainly behind the project 100%.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Great thoughtful analysis! Yeah, it seems like big changes can bring equally big problems. Your mention of letting computers take over some tasks brings to mind for me the fact that in the future we are quite likely to install PC reservation on our Internet terminals here at Main. This would take Internet use (and the tendancy to abuse it) out of the hands of both us and the patrons, and instead invest it in a computer system that is by definition objective. Yet I know it will bring a lot of complaints from patrons used to our free and easy Internet policy. Keep up the good work!
Post a Comment