Week 6 - Thing #15 - Whew! Web 2.0 and beyond

I'm reeling a bit from our readings, with all sorts of heady thoughts. Consider Rick Anderson's "Away from the 'Icebergs'" and the various icebergs we are encountering in our workplaces, and then consider Web 3D and by extension Library 3D in Dr. Wendy Schultz's "To a Temporary Place in Time." Do we want to start thinking about that paperless library, that collection of monitors and computers but not books? This is very, very exciting - a library as an Internet cafe and more, where people can come for their Web and Internet needs, interacting with one another in virtual space, meeting, gathering information, sharing ideas in blogs, consulting wikis for information, and on and on.

But where are we in this? I think we have a very large part to play in just providing that space and that access to information. Yes, I know Anderson questions the entire notion of a book-filled collection, and so here I am, a selector of materials, that is, hold-it-in-your-hands content and not virtual content, and I'm thinking, "Oops, there goes my job." But wait...what of virtual content? People will still need information and will still want to have access to dependable, good, solid, accurate content. Might we continue then to play a part in delivering all that?

I think as Michael Stephens points out, we must continue to sharpen our Web 2.0 skills and at the same time open our minds to collaboration. Why not allow users to create subject tags for materials? If that makes it easier for them to access that resource the next time they use the library, fine. The tags worked. Why not collaborate with other library systems to generate our own ILS through open source software? Then when the Dynixes of the future go away, we won't have to worry about disruption in our systems.

This is a very exciting time to be in library work. We needn't fear losing our jobs or even losing that traditional sense of "library" for now, at least, since plenty of people will still want us to give them readers' advice on mysteries and to facilitate book discussion groups and to point them to the appropriate reference source for information on that odd insect that is eating their rhododendrons, but as the years pass (and they are passing swiftly), more and more of our users will be shifting to Web 2.0 applications and, hey, Web 3D applications as well. But you know, I'm really looking forward to our future training in...Library 3D.