Libray 2.0 Perspectives

Away from the “icebergs”

This article addresses three areas of change. It is written by a librarian to librarians. First, the idea of compiling a large collection of books may be out moded due to major drops in circulation and the digital availability of materials. Second, may be instead on a focus on educating users on how to get the information they need the information should be more user friendly with less barriers. Third, consider the reality that location is more relative than it use to be. Students can now access volumes of information in journals and other materials that were once paper based online.

The bottom line is that libraries will need to consider these three point if they are to survive.

To a temporary place in time...

Here is a look at the evolution of the library from 1.0 to 4.0. We are now somewhere between 1.0 and 2.0. Dr. Schultz compares the evolution to the evolution of commerce where the focus moves from the commodity to the experience. I heard it once said, of a popular restaurant for baseball stars, that people don't go to restaurants for the food they go there to be around the people that they feel comfortable with. I wonder if this isn't where the author is going with this. Libraries are becoming part of us rather than a tool or a commodity.

The implication is that we need to accept and even embrace this inevitable change that is already occurring. I know that if I could go to a library and have that be an experience where you could move from a passive approach to information to an active approach then I would never want to leave. You could also make it more of a social and cooperative approach as well where people can share and assist each other in experiencing and and accessing information, ideas, worlds, treatments, and history in way that would only be superseded by the originators.

Synthesis and Thoughts

My first experiences with the library was with the cards organized by subject, author, and genera. I must admit that of all the systems I'm still the most at ease with this one. In fact, I use to used the electronic catalogue to help me find the appropriate section then rely on my judgment of the books to narrow my search as I did with the card system. In my previous blog I mentioned how I recently tried this again. I must say that for some reason, nostalgia, predictability, etc. I really enjoyed having this experience again. I was able to quickly locate a stack of relevant books then physically carry them home. On the balance, I am also the most high tech guy I know, and use more high tech tools then I have to. I love technology but that was not always the case. I did not own my own computer until six years ago. I hated computers until a few years ago, and today I can fix just about anything that can go wrong with them and use just about any application. I still feel safe, though with a book in my hands. I love the smell and feel of books. I like the fact that no one can hack into my book and change the information in it. I love that this book could be shared with anyone by physically handing it to them and then later sharing with them what they thought about it. I love that books represent a time when life was slower. Authors use to write books that had a slower pace and took longer to read because people, even adults, use to have the problem of needing to pass the time.

So, what does the future hold in 5-10 years. I've already broke one of my promises. I vowed to never use or need computers when I was in High School. Due to changes in the way the world works I had to break that vow by using computers to do at least some of my duties at work and at school. Now I have several computers, a digital recording studio, and I'm working on a Masters in Educational Technology. I am now the guy that everyone goes to with any and every problem they are having with technology. Where will I be in ten years? I will be helping others take a step further into using technology. I will help people with their fears and reservations over technology. I will model what is possible with technology in the classroom. I will move further and further into a virtual world where my students are not warm bodies in a traditional school room to a virtual classroom not limited by boundaries to learning, geography, and space. Is this getting too SI-FI no, because it is already possible. I only have one concern. We are only starting to understand the implications of a hurried life with high tech everything. Technology has the power to connect people but it also has the power to isolate people. My hope is that with a greater emphasis on cooperative and commutative technologies people will reverse the trend of anonymity and isolation and even be closer knit than communities of the past.