Library 2.0 A user’s perspective
From the geeky perspective (coffee, computer, screen, gizmos and doodads), Library 2.0 is an exciting prospect.
But what about the user’s perspective? What about our library borrowers who come in on a regular basis to swap books and find something new to read. What do we do for them while we are busy assembling asynchronous web applications for the wired (or wireless)?
How do we promote our new thinking? How (if it is possible) do we combine the library 2.0 online service mingling with offline service mingling?
One obvious idea is to advertise our online services, and encourage users to use them. All the usual marketing can be employed – bookmarks, posters, postcards etc.
Also signage and guiding (a project that in Herefordshire seems to be in limbo at the moment) can be used to cross reference shelves within the library; “have you tried loking at?”, or to promote services that we offer. For example, a notice on a shelf might remind borrowers that we can request hard to find items from other libraries. These notices can even be targeted to subject areas that we know we have many ILL requests for.
We don’t need a book jacket feed for physical libraries, but how about making sure that we have space available to put books on facings. Even though you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, we still do.