Library 2.0 and Remixing Existing Services
Blurring the Service Lines While Experimenting With Technologies
Jun 18, 2009
Often referred to as a modernized form of library service that examines the transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users, Library 2.0 has been an ongoing source of debate within the library world. While there are some who argue that the mandate of library services has always been to transform according to the needs of their users, others argue that Library 2.0 merge modern technology and the Web to move the library beyond the bricks and mortar. In order to focus on user-centered change and participation in the creation of content and community, Library 2.0 as a philosophy transcends into a philosophical debate of libraries and the profession of librarianship should evolve.
Librarian Innovators That Inspired Library 2.0
Although concepts from Business 2.0 and Web 2.0 had inspired Michael Casey to be the first library professional to coin the term Library 2.0 in 2005, other library innovators such as Michael Stephens, Stephen Abram, Phil Bradley, Meredith Farkas, and Laura Cohen have taken on the term and concepts from Library 2.0 and have broadened them to encompass a set of best practices.
Concepts of Library 2.0
- Web 2.0 technologies – increase the flow of information from the user back to the library, especially with online services like the use of OPAC systems
- Remixing Library Services – Reaching beyond traditional boundaries of library space to push for services out to people in places where they are already interacting
- Constant Change – Adopting a strategy for constant change while promoting a participatory role for library users, harnessing the library user in both design and implementation of service
- Blurring the Service Lines – Harvest and integrate ideas and products from peripheral fields into library service models
- Experimentation – Continue to openly and flexibly examine and improve services and be willing to replace them at any time with newer and better services
- Discoverable Information – The open library should seek to enable discovery, locating, requesting, delivery and use of its resources in its care
- Culture of Participation – Draws upon perspectives, suggestions, ideas, and contributions of all related to the library – staff, technology partners, patrons, and the public community
- Collaboration – For Library 2.0 to work, libraries, technology providers, policy makers, and information consumers must work together.
From Public Library 2.0 to Academic Library 2.0?
Although it is has been argued that Library 2.0 discourse has mostly remained in the domain of public libraries, academic librarians have begun to embrace Library 2.0 and have extended its features to encompass academia. They have been branded this as “AL2.0.”
Although Library 2.0 is still hotly debated within the library universe, Library 2.0 should nonetheless be a driving concept that forces us to examine how library services are delivered.
