Friday, September 21, 2007

Library 2.0 to Infinity

Yep, Library 2.0 is amazing. And to me it all seems to be happening so fast and furiously. But back to "it's amazing". Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, New Services, says to the effect that Library 2.0 allows for "harnessing collective intelligence". All this mind power has created a plethora of resources that are available at our fingertips. It's the bridging of the heart of library services: information, accessibility, sharing ideas, and building community (and so much more) with firespitting technology and worldwide support and knowledge.


Library 2.0 has definitely changed the nature of our role as information specialists. According to Dr. Wendy Schultz, we can expect to see Library 2.0 evolve continually and how libraries operate and the role a physical library may play will be vastly different ten year from now.


Imagine her vision of Library 4.0. A public library that serves as a "knowledge spa" and that customers will look to librarians as tour guides to navigate the quickly changing and expanding selection of online technologies. (Maybe these librarian superstars might even have their own drama/comedy someday- a new kind of "Heroes".
Personally, my favorite parts of this work are helping the people find they information they need and sharing a love of literature through programming. The changing technology component of this job keeps me on my toes and I shudder to wonder that library services might be mostly online. I love handling books- will they let us touch them in the museums of tomorrow?

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