Social Libraries: The Librarian 2.0 Phenomenon

The author shares his thoughts on the future of libraries and librarianship in the context of the emerging importance and impact of Web 2.0 and social computing. ********** This paper explores some of the concepts that underlie the emergence of the next generation of the Web and how it will affect libraries and librarianship. Commonly referred to as Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, it is also called the interactive Web or the Social Web. It is an exciting time in which we can use these tools to invent the future we need. These are my personal perspectives underpinned by thirty years in librarianship as a reference librarian, cataloger, indexer, publisher, vendor, and software developer. Recently I was asked if some software applications I was involved in were Web 2.0 compliant. This was amusing and distressing on so many levels. It is amusing because what is being called Web '2.0 is not a "standard" in almost any sense of tile word. It is distressing because it shows how quickly a conversation becomes an expectation in today's world. This is a perfect example of the power of the ninety-five theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto. (1) The major thesis to me is number one: "Markets are conversations. " I thought it might be useful to explore the opportunities for libraries to use Web 2.0 technologies to generate further success. The global Web 2.0 discussion is birthing a number of newborn babies: Law 2.0, Advertising 2.0, and Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0 among them. And why should you read this piece? You have heard it all before. But in a few years these Web. 2.0 conversations will have the power to drive huge transformations in our media landscape and therefore our life, work, and play environments. We are entering a period of enormous change--far greater than what we have experienced in our lives to date. Major forecasters such as the Gartner Group and Morgan Stanley have noted that this will be transformational on a very global scale. It will be exciting too, although those of us who care about communities, research, discovery, invention, learning, and information will be tasked with some pretty heavy strategic planning goals. We are going to need to stay alert and nimble. Web 2.0 According to some sources, the term Web 2.0 has been around since about October 2004. Wildpedia, the free Web encyclopedia, defines Web 2.0 as A term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes. (2) I think Web 2.0 goes much further than this, actually beyond an application focus. It is really about the "hot" Web. I am talking here about "hot" in the McLuhanesque sense of the hot and cold or the warm and cool aspects of technology. What makes the Web warmer or hotter? Interactivity. Of course, the Web is already interactive in a cooler sense. You can click and get results. You can send e-mail and get responses. You can go to Web sites and surf. The old World Wide Web was based on the "Web 1.0" paradigm of Web sites, e-mail, search engines, and surfing. Tim Berners-Lee's vision was originally much richer (see his current thinking on the semantic, and neutral Web), but we had to spend a few years filling in the details. (3) Web 2.0 is about the more human aspects of interactivity. It is about conversations, interpersonal networking, personalization, and individualism. It is focused on content in the context of people, workplaces, markets, community, and learning. In the library world this has relevance not just to our public Web portals but also to workplace intranets and the imperative for greater social cohesiveness in virtual teams and global content engagement. Plain intranets and plain HTML Web sites are fast becoming old stuff, so last century. …