Vanishing in a puff
of logic
Or why Library 2.0 doesn’t really exist.
Nick Woolley,
Information Specialist for Biomedical & Health Sciences,
King’s College London.
AACR2 bibliometrics cataloguing citation
classification communication
dewey decimal labels information
maps MeSH
marc21
architecture
metadata ontology OPAC
referencing signage subject headings taxonomy
thesaurus user guides web
ironic tag cloud #1
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Library 2. what?
Does it actually mean something or not?
If it does, what is it?
If it doesn’t – or it’s down to the individual – then there’s not much
point is there?
And don’t we (librarians and assorted information professionals)
have an ongoing vested interest in choosing the right words?
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Looking at Library 2.0
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Voice of doom?
Or voice of reason?
Be critical
Good ideas will survive and flourish
We have NOT been critical
Reflect
What do you do already?
Look for evidence
Does it really exist?
What do we do already?
What have we done?
01/09/2006 Library Journal
“Library 2.0 : service for the next-generation library”
“The heart of Library 2.0 is user-centered change.”
“While not required, technology can help libraries create a customer-driven, 2.0
environment.”
“.. the Library 2.0 model gives library users a participatory role in the services libraries
offer and the way they are used..”
“The Library 2.0 model seeks to harness our customer's knowledge to supplement and
improve library services.”
“What makes a service Library 2.0? Any service, physical or virtual, that successfully
reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input is a Library 2.0
service. Even older, traditional services can be Library 2.0 if criteria are met. Similarly,
being new is not enough to make a service Library 2.0.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html
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2007 re-evaluation
“Library 2.0 is user-centric. It is a shift in our focus from having libraries
decide what is best for users to letting users decide what they want, how they
want to get it, and how we can best serve them.
Library 2.0 is constant change and evaluation.
Library 2.0 is not just about technology.
Library 2.0 is political.”
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2007/10/we_know_what_library_20_is_and.html
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A synthesis
Library 2.0 is about..
..Web 2.0 / User participation / Constant change
..wisdom of crowds
..perpetual beta
..let the users decide
It is represented as a paradigm shift to the next-generation of
library services
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Library 1.0?
The Library 2.0 corollary is inescapable.
It is an implicit de facto damning critique of Library (1.0)
This critique is rarely articulated in any detail.
When it is (peripherally) mentioned no evidence is provided.
Is your Library 1.0 really so broken it needs ‘2.0’?
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Library 1.0?
“..a strict definition of Library 1.0 would be counterproductive. ..
Library 1.0 really is whatever point you are at now.
I think that what we need to remember is that Library 1.0 is a restrictive place,
governed by strict hierarchies, rigid boundaries, and underpinned by changeavoidance.”
Michael Casey (2005)
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2005/10/is_there_a_library_10_does_it.html
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“Even older, traditional services can be Library 2.0 if criteria are met.”
“Your library may already offer some services that can be considered
Library 2.0. If your organization combines these Library 2.0 options with a
framework for continual change and customer input integrated into other
operations within your library, it will be well on its way to becoming Library
2.0.”
Michael Casey (2005)
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2005/10/is_there_a_library_10_does_it.html
What does this mean? How exactly is this helpful? Doublespeak?
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Dave Pattern’s Library 2.0
generator
http://www.daveyp.com/cgi-bin/l2/ideas.pl
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http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html
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Sunglasses and moonlight
Dawkins quoting Medawar in a Nature review of Sokal
and Bricmont’s “Intellectual imposters” Nature 1998
394 141-143
“I could quote evidence of the beginnings of a whispering
campaign against the virtues of clarity. A writer on
structuralism in the Times Literary Supplement has suggested
that thoughts which are confused and tortuous by reason of
their profundity are most appropriately expressed in prose
that is deliberately unclear. What a preposterously silly idea! I
am reminded of an air-raid warden in wartime Oxford who,
when bright moonlight seemed to be defeating the spirit of the
blackout, exhorted us to wear dark glasses. He, however, was
being funny on purpose.”
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bacigalupe/385042878
Technology and the library
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Text
Sumerians 3000 BC
Clay tablets, papyrus, scrolls
Alexandria (300 BC)
Parchment, rolls, codex
The printed book
Classification
Card Index
Microform
Computers
Barcodes
OPACs
Internet and the WWW
Online databases
Digitisation, Ejournals, Ebooks
RFID
Web 2.0
The adoption of new technologies to improve
the services we offer is
characteristic of libraries in historic
and contemporary settings.
Web 2.0 may be another milestone
along the way. But don’t confuse a comma for
the start of a new chapter.
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Library 2.0 does not
replace
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Bibliographic databases
OR
Google Scholar
RefWorks
OR
Connotea
E journals, reference works
OR
Wikipedia
Experts
OR
Users
IT literacy
OR
Digital natives
pre-Library 2.0 change
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library card index
OPAC
paper abstracts
online databases
print
electronic
photocopier
pdf’s memory stick
personal card index
ref. man. software
Nothing I do is Library 2.0 #1
But what I do at work includes…
…promoting Web 2.0 tools like Delicious and Connotea
…creating / participating in / advising on wikis
…teaching RSS
…continual response to user feedback
…continual development of services and change
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Nothing I do is Library 2.0 #2
But what I do (not) at work includes…
…playing on facebook
…tagging my books on LibraryThing
…contributing to Wikipedia when I can bear it
…using Bloglines to subscribe to my own increasingly
bizarre Yahoo pipes mashed feeds…
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollyalida/1717077674
Going to the users?
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Library 2.0 says go to the users
But we already are ‘everywhere’
And do the users want us in their space?
http://education.guardian.co.uk/link/story/0,,2202291,00.html
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The OPAC is broken?
“I’ve visited Kings in Australia, and their library is absolutely massive.
They’ve got a new computer system, and if you’re looking for a certain
book, you just type in the book, and it comes up with the code, the
floor, and where you can find it on that floor. It’s really cool.” (p.18)
JISC Student Expectations Study July 2007
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/studentexpectations
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JISC Student Expectations Study
July 2007
[Comment on Second Life] “That’s a bit weird, to be honest. You would be quite
sad to do that” (p.13)
I don’t know if I would particularly like getting texts from the university. Because
your phone is your private, social thing. (p.28)
“..they do not want technology to encroach on their learning or social
experiences. (p.29)
“Fundamentally, this age group suspects that if all learning is mediated through
technology, this will diminish the value of the learning.” (p.30)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/studentexpectations
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard_am/116775447
Digital natives?
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Want to learn from experts
Want VFM
Competitive
Busy enough
Want more ‘Library 1.0’!
So…
…Library 2.0 does not describe anything new
…in fact it doesn’t really exist
…this doesn’t mean we haven’t got a lot of work to do
…this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t embrace the best of Web 2.0
…let’s keep on changing, improving, and ignoring any…
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bandwagons buzzwords doublespeak
extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds
fads groupthink
hype imposters
mumbo-jumbo
oxymorons
plus ça change self-referential slippery
vanguardism weasel
words
ironic tag cloud #2
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