Saturday, September 1, 2007

Week 6 #15

OK, here I am working at breakneck speed to finish the 23 Things by today. Not to worry the Darling Daughter is living tonight for her second year at Wellesley in Boston. Not to worry that we are shopping and lunching today with nieces and still need to manage a trip to Target for camera memory and misc. stuff for Sarah. Alright, I'm done whining, no on to Library 2.0.

I read all six articles discussing the changing face of libraries and their services. Of course, some impressed me more than others, but the one that really hit home was by Michael Stephens, Into a New World of Librarianship. It seems to me that in order for us to move towards the brave new library world, we must first look at ourselves and decide how we are going to evolve. Stephens does a good job of pointing us in the right direction, talking about:
  • planning
  • patron input
  • new Web 2.0 tools
  • faster decision-making and implementation
  • trendspotting
  • patron participation in content as well as delivery methods
I still feel like we are ahead of the 2.0 curve in so many ways, as if we are embracing technology that many of our patrons don't even know exists. In my mind, I picture the typical family coming in to check out books to read to their toddler and by their first grader. I have to ask myself: How are these folks going to be effected by Library 2.0??? How are their needs being taken into consideration??? I'm not saying that they are being ignored, but sometimes I feel that Library 2.0 is geared towards only the tech-savvy, cutting edge people with the latest and greatest computers, PDA's, I-phones, etc. I think we need to keep our average patrons in mind as we develop services and find ways to make them part of the planning also.

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