After reading all of these articles (egads, I felt like I was back at SCILS/Rutgers!) I feel as if we are paving the way for a new generation of libraries and librarians, riding the crest of a 2.0 wave. We are certainly meant to be on top of this wave here since information is our business, and the quickest, easiest method of delivery is what we are constantly striving for, right? Our biggest challenge as I see it, is getting people to ride along with us. We are not meant to be the only keepers of the flame, or the monopoly, as Anderson puts it, but meant to be educators. I try never to miss a “teaching moment” when a patron needs info that they can access themselves.
I do feel that we need to pick and choose which aspects of 2.0 we are realistically going to use(see Stephen's article). Blogs and wikis are the obvious useful ones for me, and for my work as a children’s librarian. The jury is still out as far as how our users will take to all this…part of it is how we market it to them, but that is for another post!
For collaboration among libraries, OCLC, WorldCat…I am still wrapping my head around this. Expanding the databases is mind-boggling, especially as they move into digital content. I would love to see improved metadata applied to avoid duplication and and simplify searching. So perhaps the Web 2.0 concept of "tagging" would be another tool to effectualize this. Applying these Web 2.0 principles in, for example, being able to access WorldCat with your Web browser is an tremendous prospect. I look forward to being able to use such a service, and, in turn, share it with the public. Dr. Schultz’s analogy to the coffee commodity is a fitting one (being a Starbucks snob, I look forward to increasing improvement in the Web 2.0 community, even if I pay a price for it with a never-ending mental challenge - it is worth it)
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