#15 The 2.0 Library through my crystal ball

Collecting books is our bread and butter - imagine the complaints if we didn't! I don't think that our circulation rates our dropping - if a Balwyn 10am desk is anything to go by. Hybrid libraries are going to become better at balancing online and print formats in the future.

I like the idea of taking the library to the user. In fact, I think that delivering meaningful resources to people online, educating people about online resources and helping them deal with information overload should be important goals.

Web 2.0 is different because it allows interaction between users and other users, companies, organisations. It moves users into a more active role in their information seeking or receiving. It also connects people with each other. Many 2.0 tools have a social element to them, you share, compare, give, receive, edit, comment, respond, chat....instead of just reading, listening, watching. We don't just teach the machine, we teach each other. This could have a democratising effect. Libraries should jump at these opportunities.

All this is pretty nerdy so I apologise. I think we should also have fun...this exercise has been good for encouraging us to think outside the library box and play with emerging technologies and hopefully fit them into library services. Gone are the days of shushing librarians guarding their stacks viciously. Perhaps library 2.0 means opening up the traditional library to technology and users. This might also increase connection and collaboration between libraries that are geographically remote from each other. Allowing tags instead of subject headings might help be relevant to the Google generation too. I also respect Michael Stephens idea of controlling technolusts, after all we're librarians, not geeks!

Here are some other things we could do:

• allow users to tag our collection or websites and create clouds for easy access to subject areas,

• allows users to write their own reviews - hey, we already do this, yay us!!!

• youtube video instructions on how to find books or staff talking about their favourite books

• have a facebook presence and make lots of new friends

• federated searching of catalogue, websites, database records

all of this is great of course, we can web2.0 ourselves to craziness but i know there's almost nothing better than curling up in bed on a rainy day with a great book (digital or print?)