John J. Riemer wrote in his article about bibliographic services that library catalogs should "adopt the features of Amazon and Google." Some library catalog vendors have come to the Toms River branch, endorsing their products on those very features that are missing from our current system. How many of us visit Amazon and Google multiple times a day to find books we own but aren't cataloged correctly? Riemer's definitely right on that point.
Rick Anderson explained in his piece that there was a time not too long ago when libraries held the "monopoly" on supplying information. I've talked with loads of people who ask me why I work in a library when it's no longer relevant. After seeing how people search and the results their searches yield, I realize just how relevant we are. But how? By creating the same atmosphere you find in a mall--loud and chaotic? The service libraries can provide in this hectic, noisy world is what we provided before the Internet and anything-goes behavior was accepted: a quiet place for learning. This philosophy that a library has to be all things to all people actually loses people who could use the library for real learning.
For me, Library 2.0 means getting back to basics. I understand that's not a popular view, but by jumping on every trend, we forget our mission by being spread too thin. The great organizations of the world stick to what they know. Libraries should figure out what they're good at, publicize that to the communities they serve and stick to it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment