Firefighters Embracing 2.0

I found an article which talks about how firefighters in Los Angeles are using web 2.0 technologies to reach out to their community and to pull in information from their community. Pretty interesting. If they can do it, can’t we?

Week 6, Thing 15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

One of the goals in the recent past has been to make the library a destination. That may still be true but I think it is changing. The library will be even more of the extended global community. Until now, I think its been more a part of the local community but in the future, if we integrate parts of our catalog and website into online applications that people are using, we’ll become much more of a global community. People on social networking sites such as Facebook will have access to librarians to help them with questions without ever coming to our website, much less to our physical buildings! The library will be present in their instant messaging client which may also be in their Facebook page.

And how cool would it be if there was one catalog shared by all participating libraries? Worldcat.org already “integrates library content and services with Web search engines, Internet booksellers, online bibliographies and commercial publishers. It also provides a permanent Web page dedicated solely to searching the world’s libraries and a downloadable search box that anyone can download to a blog or Web site.”

What does it mean for librarians when everyone can do their own searching? I think that people are already beginning to realize that even though they can use Google to find information, they still need an expert to help them refine their searching to completely answer their question rather than settle for the top 10 search results.

Read this article from OCLC’s newsletter, “Search for Tomorrow: Preparing for a new age in information gathering.”

2007 Web 2.0 Awards from May 9, 2007

Check out which sites were awarded the best in a variety of categories.

Exploring Libraries (…and our Users) in the Web 2.0 Realm

From the NORASIST Annual Meeting, October 24th, 2006

The information world is becoming more user-driven and “social” in scope. As information professionals, we must understand this new wave of Internet customization and collaboration. Our users are developing new expectations in information delivery and interaction, but are we meeting or exceeding their needs? Some libraries and information providers are exploring and utilizing the same principles and technologies that have driven the Web 2.0 movement. Libraries are using tools, such as blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, social communities, podcasts, and various “mash-ups”, to give library users increased ownership in their library experiences.

Public Library Geeks Take Web 2.0 to the Stacks

This is an article that appeared in the magazine, Wired. I’ve been following the training offered by the IT director, Helene Blowers, at North Carolina’s Charlotte & Mecklenburg County public library for a while now and would like to see us do something similar at BCPL.

“The last thing we want is for people to come into our libraries and ask about Flickr or Second Life and be met with a blank look,” said Christine MacKensie, director of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne, Australia, which just finished a four-month version of Learning 2.0. “And they certainly won’t now.”

“Recognizing that librarians need to know how to participate in the new media mix if libraries are to remain relevant, Blowers challenged her 550 staffers to become more web savvy. Using free web tools, she designed the program and gave staff members three months to do 23 things.

They created blogs and podcasts, tried out Flickr, set up RSS feeds, learned about wikis, uploaded video to YouTube, played with image generators and Rollyo, and explored Technorati, tagging and folksonomies.”

Public Library Geeks Take Web 2.0 to the Stacks

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

You 2.0: It’s not just the Web that’s transforming

“The new Web is a very different thing,” writes Lev Grossman in Time. “It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution.”

It is a revolution, and one that challenges librarians more than nearly any other profession

Why is this revolution a challenge to librarians? Because today, it’s through these tools that information is published, shared, and evaluated. This is where information seeking takes place. It’s on the Web, in the interaction between “established” media and “user-created” media, that our culture’s conversations are taking place.

For librarian-teachers, this challenge is even more critical. The new Web is increasingly the pen and paper for young people. It’s one of the places they experience and create narrative. It’s where reading and learning takes place, where recreational needs are met, communities are formed, and knowledge is constructed.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403249.html&&refpage%3D

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403249.html%5E