First, let me apologize for that image of Tom Cruise. I realize that nowadays a lot of people find him kind of creepy. But Tom is asking what I'm asking: Show me the money! By which I mean, show me what 'Library 2.0' really is.
The Learning 2.0 programme has left me with a nagging doubt that 'Library 2.0' is just another of those culture fads that we'll look back on in 10 years' time with a mixture of embarrassment and amusement, like Segways, or manmade global warming. Perhaps it'll be an answer in the 2015 edition of Trivial Pursuit.
The trouble sign is that no-one can tell me what L2.0 actually is. Every blog and website I have visited just sprays around words like community, trust, participation, content-rich, interactive, etc., in much the same way that a squid uses ink, or heavy metal bands use dry-ice fog. Sadly, I'm inclined to agree with online columnist Jonah Goldberg:
"Web 2.0 is a nothing but a buzz phrase designed to make money for people who use phrases like Web 2.0."
This is not to say that new things are not happening in Libraries. Unquestionably they are, and nobody knows this better than librarians. But what is the purpose of taking a grab-bag of mostly unrelated internet applications, and pretending that they form an organic identity that is, moreover, crucial to the survival of libraries? Blogging is important for librarians? Show me the money! Show me the library blog that really makes a difference. Tell me how many library patrons actually read it.
Librarians need to know about blogs, certainly, in the same way they need to know about lots of other things in the modern world, like pole dancing. But to insist that a librarian needs to write a blog in order to be modern is like insisting they ride around the library on those stupid Segways instead of walking.
Update: I should have known.
2 comments:
Some very interesting comments which are great because you are challenging where a lot of libraries are heading by challenging the usefulness of web 2.0 tools in the library environment. I feel this learning program is useful because it allows us to look at some of the web 2.0 tools people are using.. We can then assess whether or not we can see a use for them. Keep up the comments, they are very useful in this assessment.
Before I offer my counter rant, I'd like to say how much I've enjoyed 'Cries 'n Whispers' - it has been my favorite blog among our group. I still practically wet myself laughing every time I see the Millennials picture from 'Village of the Damned.'
So forget about the 2.0 tag. Forget about all the tags. Put the blogs, wikis, widgets, stuff sharing, etc in the larger context of the changes occurring in how people communicate, record and find information.
We've noted the semi-hysterical pronouncements from various corners of the library world that embracing Whatever 2.0 is crucial to libraries' survival.
However pointless, that hysterical tone is understandable. Libraries have had their day. They will not survive.
"Show me the library blog that really makes a difference." Exactly.
"Tell me how many library patrons actually read it." Tell me how many library patrons know that they're called 'patrons.'
How long before every known book, journal, public record or manuscript in or out of copyright is digitized? Ten years? Twenty years? At my age, that's not a long time.
When anything worth viewing can be accessed from home, office or cell phone, who needs a library?
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