Things 14 & 15

Technorati was interesting, it seemed like an attempt to impose some order and standardisation on blogs - a very library thing to do. I didn't sign up for it as I don't yet feel the need for people to be able to find my blog easily. But it is good to know that it is there if a want to find blogs on a particular topic.



I thought the article Into a New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm had a lot of sensible advice in it. Particularly the paragraphs on controlling 'technolust' and the need to understand 'content'.

There have certainly been a lot of words written about web 2.0 and it potential in libraries and I am going to add a few more with particular reference to public libraries. It worries me that Web 2.0 is seen as a way of enticing the 'digital natives' into a library when normally they wouldn't go near one - I think that the sorts of social networking that these potential customers like to use will have no effect on their library usage. Sitting at a computer trawling Facebook or YouTube or Flickr can be done anywhere and unless the library is going to spend big money on a lot of computers, thereby alienating lots of other users of the library, it is not going to attract the 'natives' with these tools (and shouldn't, I think). If we can think of ways to attract customers to use the space available in libraries for actual social networking perhaps initially via blogs or wikis which then lead to meetings of different groups that is innovative. If we just want a lot of extra computer users we might as well be an internet cafe. However there are loads of really good applications that can be used in a library situation to make life easier and more fun for staff and customers alike. Things like Mashups for displays, Wikis for communication, Rollyo and del.icio.us to help staff find relevant information fast and VUFind http://www.vufind.org/ to add value to the catalogue. To finish this rant I will quote Michael Stephens 'This librarian does not buy technology for the sake of technology. “Techno-worship” does not exist here. Without a firm foundation in the mission and goals of the institution, new technologies are not implemented for the sake of coolness and status. Technology is put to the test....'