Library 2.0- What It Means To Me

In "Library 2.0- It’s many things to many people", I really enjoyed reading what others' concept of Library 2.0 is.

And what does Library 2.0 mean to me? Well, I'm really glad you asked. I get so tired of the negativity that some librarians express when asked to learn or use 2.0 technologies. It's depressing in general and discouraging to those of us that are starting out in this profession. In what other career area is it acceptable for members of the profession to eschew change and growth in their work environment, or to explicitly state that they refuse to learn the technological aspects of their jobs? Hello, unemployment line.

But then I have hope, because of efforts like the Vermont's 23 Things and the nationwide participation of libraries/librarians in the 23 Things project. I think the best thing about this endeavor is that even if you don't (or won't) use these 2.0 skills on the job at library, you will understand the concepts and see how 2.0 tools support learning and/or information seeking.

My hope is that those librarians who deep down are still clinging to the icebergs, will lend their support to those of us who want to be Librarian 2.0. Because both sides of the 2.0 debate love libraries and are hopeful for it's viable future.

And I believe both sides can be hopeful if we contemplate Dr. Wendy Schultz's vision of the Library 4.0, as our evolution continues.

Technorati

I explored Technorati, including running searches for topics of interest, following tags, and I even claimed this blog. But frankly, I just don't see how I would really use it.

I can see how it could be a useful tool, but mostly for those that are either into blogging as a hobby or use it as an aspect of their job (for example, those in the media or larger institution libraries that might write and monitor others' blog entries, or for monitoring our blog participation in Vermont's 23 Things!).

For my own personal and job related purposes, I think I'll stick to my RSS feeds.

Social Bookmarking

In my experience social bookmarking tools like de.licio.us, are very helpful since they allow you to access (and share with others) the sites you'd mark as "favorites" but is accessible from any computer.

Although I played around with de.licio.us for this exercise, my favorite bookmarking site is furl. I like furl because I think the format looks cleaner than delicious, and because it offers really handy tools such as: allowing you to designate your links private, a feature to import sites from your computer's bookmarks, and allows you to export your archive (you can select which ones by choosing designated tags) into XML, a zipped file, or a a hyper-linked list. It will also create citations of your archive according to whichever format you want (MLA, APA etc.)

Libraries can take advantage of social bookmarking sites by sharing with their patrons useful quality sites.

This type of sharing resources also has great potential for research assistance since you can aggregate quality websites as subject guides, writing guides, or any other information rich resources.

The del.icio.us blog has written up ways in which teachers and librarians are using social bookmarks.

Simpsons avatar

From http://simpsonizeme.com/

LibraryThing

Although I've been a member of LibraryThing since late 2006, I didn't realize that libraries could get in on the action. I think it works great for libraries, since I find it too much "work" to enter in my home collection of books, or even titles I'm currently reading from the library. I guess after all the cataloging I do at work, I've lost all interest in coming home to do it some more!

That said, I used to work at an optics library while I was pursuing my masters degree and I think that LibraryThing is a great tool for special collections (which are book oriented) because users with their special knowledge can add subject tags. This is an awesome tool that allows librarians to harness the knowledge of the users who know more about a subject than the librarian does!

Obviously, I've only sporadically used this site personally, but would love to implement it in our culinary library here at NECI to find out how useful the tag clouds are in guiding patrons' book searches.

Image generators: (Meez are the beez kneez)

I had such fun playing around with image generators! I especially liked creating a Meez avatar. It was easy to pick out which features and clothing I wanted to add.

There's so many directions to in with creating an "avie"; one with fantasy features (clown shoes and makeup with a krumping pose anyone?) or one that resembles you. I chose to make one that actually resembles me and added clothes that I might be caught wearing on the weekend. I then chose the "chillin" pose and put myself in a library background! Too much fun.

It was very easy to add the image to my blog afterward too. One of the selections on the "export" page is an icon for blogger. After I selected the blogger icon, entered my login and blog title, and viola! it populated directly to my blog's sidebar.

Social Networking sites

I think it's important for libraries to be a part of the social networking sites because:

1. It's a way of projecting a library's presence out into the web in a fun and easy to use format (some libraries OPAC are overly sterile and/or unwieldy).
2. It's a free way to make announcements and market your events or projects.
3. It's an opportunity to get feedback from your patrons who might not be willing to approach someone at the library.
4. It let's libraries/librarians see what other libraries/librarians are doing and get inspired.