In Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service, Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk ask the question central to an evolving model of library service:
Are librarians reaching out to all members of the community?
Library 2.0 Ripples
David Lee King
Click to learn more!
How can librarians possibly reach out to all community members?
There is so much work to be done within the library’s walls: organizing, analyzing, instructing, advising, preserving, and documenting! If a librarian feels like his or her library lacks adequate resources and support (staff and funding) to facilitate returning patrons, when will he or she ever be motivated and excited to engage new patrons? However, the disheartened librarian has something new to look forward to! It is change. A change in service. A change in attitude. A change towards a Library created by the community.
Library 2.0 allows librarians to engage new patrons (not familiar with library services) in a way that is relevant to humanity’s increasing interest in creating and consuming electronic information on the Web. So far, some librarians (and library patrons) are uncomfortable with participating in the unfamiliar, and seemingly complicated, Web community. However, to remain relevant in this digital age, it is necessary for librarians (the Librarian 2.0) to become aware of emerging information and communication technology (ICT) relevant to the communities (virtual and placed-based) he or she serves. Knowledge about emerging technology will help the Librarian 2.0 assist patrons learn to: evaluate the myriad electronic information sources available and use the Internet safely.
Through research, I hope to answer the question:
How does the Librarian 2.0 lead people to relevant knowledge in a Web connected world?
I intend to frame my research paper around correlating ideas from Casey and Savastinuk (2007) Library 2.0, Seth Godin‘s Tribes, and Deepika Bajaj‘s #Diversitytweet.
Casey and Savastinuk (2007) conclude their participatory service guide with a call to embrace and celebrate community uniqueness and patron diversity: “In the end, Library 2.0 will look different for each library, based in part on users’ diverse needs.” Library 2.0 is the Library’s chance to demonstrate (first-hand!) how information and technology in context can reveal a clearer path towards relevant change.
Further Reading:
Abram, Stephen. (2006, January). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World. SirsiDynix.
Hill, C. (2009). Inside, outside, and online: Building your library community. Chicago: American Library Association.
The Human Library
A ‘Living Book‘ is a human who has volunteered to represent a stereotyped group of people. “The ‘reader’ of the [living] library can be anybody who is ready to talk with his or her own prejudice and stereotype and wants to spend an hour of time on this experience.”
“With diversity, we make innovation and evolution a reality” (Bajaj, 2010, p. 23).
When people are ready to let go of their prejudices and first impressions, librarians and library patrons will have more opportunities to share unique perspectives and experiences and contribute to library culture. The Librarian 2.0 can help empower communities to: discover useful information and communication technologies (ICT), harness diverse community knowledge, inspire relevant change, and achieve common goals.
P.S. Thanks for everyones’ patience while I learned my lesson about laptop hard drive crashes the hard way… Fortunately, Godin was right about the Apple tribe. The young man at the genius bar replaced my hard drive for FREE! I didn’t have AppleCare, or anything! That is customer-driven service. That service further roots loyalty to the Apple tribe. Libraries might learn something from this type of tribal leadership.
ANYWAY! To ensure that I don’t lose most of my data again, I plan to continuously:
1. Backup my digital files on an external hard drive
2. Upload digital files to the communal computing cloud
