Library 2.0-what this series of lessons is really all about. I read the articles and they do bring into focus where we are and what we need to be doing. Away from icebergs hits close to home. I can relate to “just in case” collections, though I do think we have been trying to make our collection more relevant to what users are using and we are adding more formats for them. The high usage of our ebook collection tells us we are reaching at least some of our patrons using new technologies. Even though we still do user education, and should, we need to focus on making our resources easy to use. Patrons will not always come to librarians to ask questions, and perhaps they really don’t need to if we make our site easier enough to use. We are not the only game in town, and we need to adapt to that concept.
And, I think with these lessons, we’re trying to get all staff to at least sample some of the web 2.0 tools that are out there and that we need to use to stay relevant to our public. I think we’ll all have to adjust more quickly to this world as it is zooming along. We can’t study something to death before trying it. On the same hand, we’re not going to jump on every bandwagon. We always have and always will keep the patron’s needs in the forefront.
I think we’re starting to use Web 2.0 applications in the library. Innovative is offering new products that have patron interactivity and more collaboration. We’re moving ahead to get LibraryThing for the catalog. I think it would be cool if we could use Endeca. I saw a presentation with Andrew Pace, from NC State, and it was a very impressive product. We need to start using our federated search more here too. After we do our next upgrade, that would be the time to go back to it and encourage its use.
1 Comment
November 9, 2007 at 12:49 am
I agree that there are some really essential things that we can start integrating right away, that are no longer bandwagon type stuff, like the user tagging and federated search. I’ll have to look into Endeca now…
-Garrett