Exercise 15: Library 2.0 post Yes, I watch Keith Oberman!

Library 2.0 is about collaborations and conversations coming from libraries to library users, from library users to libraries, and among library users. They are invited to participate interactively with the libraries via blogs, wikis, and social book marking tools. In the 80’s libraries made a major push to develop online public access catalogs. Since then libraries have done well in building electronic collections. Conversely, librarians did not insist that providers comply with the users’ needs for easy to use and robust database interfaces. With the exception of FirstSearch, we have few intuitive interfaces for access to the wealth of our electronic databases. We have dozens of database providers who have simply run amuck, hence the need for yet another product – the federated search tools.

How do libraries regain the interest and trust of the potential library users? Certainly we must use all means available – blogs, wikis, and a Web presence that are responsive to the user wants and needs such as instruction or infotainment via pod, vod, and screen casting; presence in the Second Life; and any other means that becomes available tomorrow to meet, find, and regain library users interest and participation.

Libraries and librarians need to embrace the future instead of running a treadmill of indecision and inaction. Google's mission is to provide access to all of the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. We need to embrace Google, especially the pertinent off-spring of Google such as Google Scholar, Google Print, and Google Books. They have the same mission: “Information for the people”. We also need to work with OCLC initiatives since their mantra is “harnessing collective intelligence”. We need to pay OCLC for services rendered and keep our libraries holdings up to date. We can now avail ourselves of the “Library local” feature that can be linked through a Google search and provide further access to our library users. We need to ride the coattails of the winners. Take ownership of the decisions to cooperate and thereby give more to our library users. We need, at a minimum, to keep up with the trends and we had better anticipate useful technological innovations. We must decide to cooperate with Google and not dangle our metaphorical toes above the water for a year or a year and a half before taking the plunge. If we are to survive we must embrace the future instead of running a treadmill of indecision and inaction.