Information Takes Over

Baby Boomer Librarian: The new Divide between libraries and librarians
People on both sides of it are getting ridiculous. Some bloggers deny the existence of Library 2.0 while some Library 2.0 evangelists want to throw out or forget anything not related to their view of Library 2.0. I tend to fall in the middle. To me, L2 is a convenient shorthand for a group of ideas and technologies on improving library services. It does not replace so called Library 1.0 services or ideals. It provides new ways of reaching out to our user communities or in Library 1.0 parlance, our patrons.

Here, here, as they say in the commons.

I hear murmerings in the back benches [Deep amongst the stacks], “Nothing new under the sun”, “everything old is new again”, “can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, “the libray has done it this way for years”, Blaaa, Blaaaa…

Let’s just accept that we have a bunch of new tools. Let’s look at the way we are doing things and discern it’s relevency to our dear borrowers, those quaint unseen.  Let’s ask ourselves why we don’t see them.  Let’s look at the places they have gone.  Let’s create a google map with a flag for every borrower, and see where the gaps are.  Let’s facilitate this adoption of new technologies by our borrowers.  Let’s show them that the internet can be managed.  Let’s recommend a good read to while away a wet weekend.  Let’s put them in touch with other people who like to read the same things.

Lets just call it a library.

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