I would like to start out by saying that I am a huge fan of Stephen Abram, who wrote "43 Things I might want to do this year" (on which this program is based). I have had the good fortune of hearing him speak at several conferences, including Computers in Libraries the late 1990's. His topic then was Knowledge Management, and it strikes me that all of these tools are a form of attempting to, if not manage Web 2.0 resources, ( since they are way too fluid and out of our control!) at least know enough about them to manage our way to utilizing them when necessary. This certainly applies to sending patrons to these resources as needed as well as using them for our own recreational or lifelong learning applications.
I think it has been a useful exercise to investigate these web tools, but I also think that a significant percentage of our user population does not use them. However, this is changing, partly due to our success at providing free Internet access to patrons. Now, people who could not afford home pc's are able to access them at the library and are more likely to visit some of the sites that we have during the course of this exercise.
I do agree with Abram who said: " ... I asked every teen and college-age friend and relative I met about the way the used the Web, and many of the links above were tools and services that they considered essential to their lives. It's your entry into the new world of next-generation coworkers." It is certainly our introduction to the next (and much of the present) generation of library users. We must keep in mind that we are not to discount what we have learned about print, electronic and web-application library resources by any means, but understanding even a little bit more about all the other tools people are using 'out there' on the Web gives us a broader
perspective on our world. It's all part of the learning process that won't stop until we do!
1 comment:
hey d, congrats on finishing the 23 things!!!
i liked your comment---We must keep in mind that we are not to discount what we have learned about print, electronic and web-application library resources by any means, but understanding even a little bit more about all the other tools...
in my opinion, the most exciting opportunity for librarians is to remain mindful of the traditional resources you've mentioned above but come up with creative ways to employ 2.0 tools which might improve accessiblity, transparency, functionality, etc to those traditional items.
i think there are large numbers of patrons who used the book indexes then jumped to Google for ease of use, but missed the train on our catalog or online databases because they were so clunky and hard-to-use. employing 2.0 tech (that they are already using in their daily lives) might get some of them back.
congratulations again for completing the 23 things!
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