Wow...the Web 2.0 phenomenon video is certainly thought provoking and something that you need to watch several times due to the impact. It is very clever and very true. Everything is changing. This is especially true with the web and all is contains.
It is also true for libraries. The way in which we do our jobs today is different in many ways from 10 years ago, different again from 15 years ago and so on. With the way technology is growing, changing and expanding, particularly on the world wide web, our industry has no choice but to go with it and adapt our roles within the community accordingly.
Two statements that stood out amongst the articles I read were: "In Web 2.0, the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives. The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities—essentially everything people do". This was taken from Where will the next generation Web take libraries? By Tom Storey....and "In my library, we’ve seen a 55 percent drop in circulation rates over the past twelve years, making it harder and harder to justify the continued buildup of a large “just in case” print collection. As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, pod-casts, etc. You think they can’t have everything? Think again. This may be our great opportunity", taken from "Away from the 'Icebergs'" by Rick Anderson.
As mentioned, we are already seeing the impact within our libraries of the vast amount of information available on the world wide web and our customers requirements are increasingly more focused towards needing assistance with accessing databases and web-sites than with finding printed information. It has already transformed our lives in relatively short time it has been available...and we can only imagine how it will rapidly continue to do so...
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I've just read your Technorati and Wiki posts and must congratulate you on your astute comments based on careful consideration. My views are a bit more jaundiced because although I can see how great it would be to have everything in digital form (or do I?), it means that the majority of the world's populations are not going to have access to any information at all if the libraries cease to exist, simply because they do not have access to electricity and most definitely not to the basic education required to understand the vast amount of information available IF by some miracle they managed to get their hands on a computer. Guns and drugs are readily available to third world and emerging nations, but not books and most definitely not computers. IF librarians, teachers and governments really want information to do what it is supposed to do, inform, educate and empower, then hopefully they will join forces and provide these disadvantaged people with both food and the tools for feeding their minds! Can the Internet do this, or will it simply keep the status quo of the haves having it all with the rest forever denied access to the basic human rights of food and the ability to read and write? One of the reasons I would like to live forever, to see where it will all end or rather, begin!
Well...sheesh 'the majority' have got computers - theyre called cellphones, and there are now about 3 billion-plus of them out there. And India alone adds 6 million more a month..
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