SLIS Faculty News
Library 2.0
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There is a lot of talk in the profession about technology changes and how they impact libraries. What is the role of Wikipedia, Flickr, Google Maps, blogs, MySpace in information sharing? How can libraries help? How do libraries respond and use new technologies to assist patrons? These are some of the issues addressed in the trend labeled "Library 2.0".
Howard Rosenbaum, SLIS faculty member and Master of Information Science program director, has been an invited speaker on this topic for several state library association meetings.
On October 11, 2007, he gave the keynote address at the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries annual luncheon (at the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois annual meeting) in Springfield, Illinois. Rosenbaum said, "I was the first speaker they have had at this event. There were four SLIS grads in the audience!"
Summary - Library 2.0: A Critical View
"There's a lot of talk about Library 2.0, much of it positive and celebratory. This movement is presented by advocates as being transformative; libraries will change as will librarianship. In this talk we will take a colder and more critical view of the concept and the movement. This talk explored the technological determinism and utopianism embedded in the discourse about Library 2.0."
Excerpts:
"There is clearly online collaboration and sharing. People are taking shared responsibility for publishing terabytes of knowledge about themselves, the network, and their worlds. People are observing others, expanding the network, making 'friends', editing and updating content, blogging, remixing, sharing, responding, exhibiting, tagging... Do these represent new information behaviors and needs? How can libraries respond?" [slide 39, Rosenbaum, 10/11/07 presentation]
"Library 2.0 simply means making your library's space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives...to make the library a destination and not an afterthought."
– 12/19/05, by Michael Stephens and Michael Casey
– http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2005/12/index.html
[slide 12, Rosenbaum, 10/11/07 presentation]
On November 8, 2007, Rosenbaum has been invited back to the Missouri Library Network Corporation (MLNC). Last year he gave a talk at the MLNC annual meeting about Web and Library 2.0 and after offering a positive spin on these movements said that he'd enjoy coming back the following year to provide a more critical perspective.
This year his talk is titled Library 2.0: Stepping Off the Technology Treadmill
"Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, the popular inaugural presenter of the MLNC Speakers Series returns to discuss Library 2.0 a year later. There's still a lot of talk about Library 2.0 - we discussed the topic in a positive and exploratory way last year. Now it's time for a colder and more critical examination of the concept. What's really new and different about the new technologies? How should librarians respond? What are the dangers in getting carried away by this concept? The treadmill may be speeding up, but we don't have to stay on it!" [MLNC website]
Posted Nov. 2, 2007
