Thing #15: Library 2.0

Today's "Thing" dealt with reading about Library 2.0 and various perspectives of it. See http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/1.htm. It's been almost 4 years now since this article and its follow-up perspectives were written. That said, it's uncertain whether the statements within still hold true or not. I am of the thought that most do, though not all of our 2.0 technologies have taken off as originally thought. (Does anyone still visit Second Life frequently?) However, I'm not sure taking the opportunities to make the best of use of these technologies and build on them for the future. Unfortunately, the economy has had a lot to do with that. Many library systems, including mine, can't afford to be too cutting edge at the moment.

One idea that caught my eye in the discussions I read was the seemingly simple idea of linking one library (system)'s catalog to others to create worldwide catalog access. Santa Monica (CA) Public Library did this with their catalog (which is iBistro based like ours) via OCLC WorldCat. Montgomery County could make such use of this with so many other library systems in the area. We do have a page that contains links other systems' catalogs, but one much search in each individually. However, we are soon losing our subscription to OCLC WorldCat so such an advance with have to wait. (It's an imperfect technology right now anyway, because the results from other libraries are listed by distance from your ZIP code. MCPL is listed with a Gaithersburg ZIP code since that's where are collection management office is. Hence PGMLS actually shows up first in my search list even though MCPL's Silver Spring branch might have a copy of what I'm looking for.)

Other libraries have taken other steps toward making their catalogs more user centric and Amazon.com-like. There are places on their catalog page for the public to tag and cloud and leave user comments about a given title. It seems like many of us still have a ways to go before we are taking advantage of all Library 2.0 has to offer. Will we get their before Library 3.0 beckons?