Monday, August 4, 2008

Thing #15 Web 2.0

Rick Anderson makes several key points with which I completely agree. We are not using our resources appropriately - we are not maximizing the potential. Yes, many people still crave a book in all it's paper and leather bound glory, but many do not. They want information at their fingertips. While millions of books will sit in libraries untouched this year, students will still ask for other books/information not available. Also, I can't help but make the point that if more information moved to the web/technological transmission, we could save millions of trees. (though I admit I am slightly hypocritical since I love searching the shelves of B&N, reading the backs of novels and thumbing the pages.) Anderson makes some key points that I really feel make sense and he encompasses my thoughts on the future of libraries, so here they are...technology is our greatest opportunity to really "collect" and make information available to patrons, patrons need to be educated about HOW to access information - not just how to use it once they have it, research and libraries are now at our fingertips and integral parts of our everyday lives. So, now that we have established that...how do we expand what is available, educate the masses on how to access information and maximize the ways we use these new resources everyday? The question ceases to be what is library 2.0 and begins to be what do we do with it?

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