Comments on: If Amazon isn’t Library 2.0, what is?

By: Charlotte Wilmot

Charlotte Wilmot — Thu, 31 May 2007 10:35:31 +0000

I think a library is also a space to think and work, often offering a place of peace and calm (not my library, but most libraries).

It also offers an opportunity to try things out with no financial investment. If you borrow a book or access information for free or small cost you can afford to be more experimental than you would be on Amazon.

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:44:27 +0000

Please do Matt. We certainly need more people from outside libraries.
I think it’s a case of some librarians trust users, others do not; it’s not a whole profession thing.
We do need to get other librarians on board before we start ‘innovating.’ ANd libraries are also not about ‘products’ or widgets, although some could easily come out of libraries.
Where *do* Library thing get their catalogue data from?

By: What is Library 2.0? « Matt’s Musings

What is Library 2.0? « Matt’s Musings — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:41:32 +0000

[...] lot about Library 2.0. When I posted Amazon is Library 2.0, he countered with asking the question what is Library 2.0? Do we have any actual examples of Library 2.0? What exactly is it that we’re asking of [...]

By: magia3e

magia3e — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:10:50 +0000

Web 2.0 projects start because the people understand the needs of users, trust them, they innovate, make wow-appeal products, make open products rather than closed ones, give free widgets out to make it easy to use, get communities (online and offline) growing around them. And they make it free. And they make it easy to interact and share knowledge and information - whether its about tunes, books or even about libraries.

I think some of these things are vital to evolving libraries toward L2.

I don’t yet know whether libraries understand the different segments of their huge (potential) user-base or how to engage with them effectively to build online communities and leverage the social web. I don’t yet know whether they trust their users. I’m yet to see any wow products - I just see librarians still trying to sell web 2.0 concepts to other librarians and that just feels like catchup rather than innovation.

…Saying that, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with wikipedia’s definition of L2. Maybe I should have a go at contributing to that debate.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:07:25 +0000

The classic position would be to state that our staff are our best and most significant resource… The helpful ones, anyway. But that’s a sweeping generalisation, and sweeping generalisations are always wrong.

It doesn’t really help with your L2 question, but I’ve always felt that a successful and effective library has its own atmosphere: one that’s conducive to helping your visitors get whatever they want out of their visit.

Maybe Library 2.0 should be about taking that atmoshpere and expanding it in two ways: beyond the physical confines of the library; and outside the operational constraints of established library service delivery models. Does it even exist in the real world?