Web 2.0 Technologies: Tools and Services in Libraries
When I think of Web 2.0, I think about the tools people are using to connect with each other in online environments. Some of these connections are examples of networking and promotion (like the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook), while others are based in creativity and collaboration (such as wikis and forums). It represents an information environment open to all who care to participate (and are fortunate to have internet access): hence the wild popularity of self-published blogs. I see it as an exciting democratization of the previously more guarded realm of knowledge production, and am pleased to be part of a profession that has so thoroughly embraced this new wave of web.
Indeed, where there exists a Web 2.0 tool, a library is likely close by. We use blogs externally to publicize library services and acquisitions as well as internally, to manage organizational projects and to discuss overarching trends of the profession. Social bookmarking such as folksonomies, tagging and tag clouds present a fascinating counter-point to traditional concepts behind cataloguing and subject classification. Heck, librarians are even branching out into virtual worlds such as Second Life, which certainly goes to show our willingness to meet the information needs of potential library users in ever evolving environments.
Web 2.0 has brought about a concurrent update to the philosophy of library service, which is commonly referred to as Library 2.0. According to Michael Conroy’s recent Library 2.0 presentation, one of the key facets of Library 2.0 is its emphasis upon providing services to users wherever they may be. Now, outreach efforts into communities is hardly a new phenomenon: I’m thinking here of parallels to the work of community development librarians who attempt to address the barriers to library service of socially excluded groups. And although there are some who are critical of attempts to reach out to online users and anticipate their needs, such as the Annoyed Librarian, I personally tend to find the prospect of library involvement in Web 2.0 to be largely worthwhile.
As a component of my learnings for SLAIS’s LIBR 500: Foundations of Information Technology course, I have created this blog in order to explore examples of how various libraries have applied the Web 2.0 tool of instant messaging (or IM) in the context of virtual reference.
Sincerely,
Emily Sobool, MLIS Student
