Blogs. Wikis. RSS. Podcasts. YouTube. Overdrive. Downloading. RFID. RDA. Del.icio.us. Tagging. Library Thing. Google Doc. Wireless. Firefox. Instant Messaging. This all sounds like we're talking about the latest Star Wars movie, not about recent systems and tools being used in libraries.
I'd like to take credit for this somewhat-humorous observation, but actually I stole it from a collection of articles I read a while back about 2.0 "philosophy" and systems, and about the pros and cons of 2.0 use in libraries. I don't remember which article it was in. Pretty cool scholarship, huh....
There were some interesting discussions, such as whether Wikipedia can be relied on as being accurate, compared to a stodgy old hardbound institution like ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA, and whether "pod people" are transforming themselves into narrow-minded "herd nerds" ignoring a lot of the real world, and whether by selecting only the "feeds" and tags and categories and specific sources of information that we choose to look at in all of our available 2.0 technology, we actually are NOT being democratic and thorough enough in our pursuit of knowledge.
Having completed the BPL 2.0 program (thanks to Terzah and Erin, for setting it all up and making it easier for us to slog through it all), and having posted 10 different blogs on 2 different Blogger blogs (during one lesson, the Powers That Be decided to growl, and wouldn't let me access my own blog, so I had to set up a second blog at Blogger, just so I could complete the lesson), and having deleted those and then posted this much more meaningful and profound example of blog communication, I hope that online readers around the world and in future generations will read this, some day, and say "Wow! This guy was off his rocker! What was he smoking when he wrote THIS?"
Hey, I'm telling it like it is. And I'm being user-friendly. I'm sparing you from having to read about how, during one lesson, I accidentally encountered some other guy named Dick's online porn feed, and I had to go through a horrible fight to get my online feeds disassociated from that Dick's porn.
In all seriousness, I think some of the 2.0 applications, if used only on a personal basis, are kind of silly. For example, I have no interest in wasting my time reading somebody's diary online, and how their cat Matilda brought a dead mouse into the house, yesterday, and how Ripple Wine tastes so good at breakfast, and how Shorna shed 10 lbs. of excess avoirdupois by embracing the Boiled Grapefruit Diet for 3 weeks. Blah! This is like being forced to listen to people blathering on cell phones, virtually everywhere, these days. I'd rather visit the public dump, and see who or what shows up. Or eat my hiking boots for lunch.
On the other hand, a lot of the 2.0 (and other recent technologies and tools) COULD be very useful, in a library. At BPL we could definitely use a library blog and wiki (if monitored to prevent the Forces of Evil out there from using it to demean or attack BPL), YouTube video presentations, RSS feeds, podcasts, Google Doc, and Library Thing. In fact, we already ARE using some of these at BPL. But before we leap into full-scale implementation of 2.0 (as some libraries amazingly have done, when these 2.0 systems haven't even been tested adequately, yet), I think we should have an all-staff discussion about which 2.0 possibilities might work best at BPL, how we're going to set them up and prepare our patrons for the changes, whether we should hire a 2.0 specialist to help us implement and maintain 2.0 innovations (if we don't think we need a specialist, let's at least train somebody currently on staff to become a video specialist, so we can create QUALITY videos for BPL), and how we're going to communicate to the public about why we're spending time and money on 2.0 innovations rather than on expanding and enhancing our core programs for all age groups, or on improving some of our current procedures and systems that are bogging us down and severely overloading our employees.
I'll conclude, now, with this deep thought, which is what freshpersons in college typically say at the ends of their expository (or is that suppository?) writing papers: much more research needs to be done on this important subject. And I can hardly wait for someone to call me at BPL and say, "Hey, man, is your wiki up?"
