Thing #15: Library 2.0

My take on Libraries and "2.0" in a nutshell:

What about Library 1.0? I think most of us in LibraryLand have skipped a step. In the 1990s and early 2000s, companies and other organizations were scrambling to get themselves "on the net." They engaged in earnest web development that has gone through many phases and has become something clean, simple and user-generated, in many cases. Very few libraries invested this kind of energy in their web presences.

Libraries have been online for many decades, with our catalogs and databases, and we should be proud of that. These tools, however, are based on outmoded technologies (MARC, having to choose an index to search, for example). Search engines came along and made web search into an entirely different beast, and until library technology catches up to web technology, our products are going to function and feel clumsy and confusing.

So yes, there are many ways to apply Web 2.0 tools to libraries in fun and productive ways. But we also need to work on our core systems and get them to a point where they can interact with the rest of the web world in ways users can grasp. They can't herald our fabulous resources if they can't find them!