Library 2.0 - again!

This was on the "Gather No Dust" blog today - http://gathernodust.blogspot.com/

http://gathernodust.blogspot.com/2007/09/so-what-would-20-library-look-like.html

I loved the ideas for how to put control into the hands of our customers!

In a similar vein Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County passed on an great comment about the learning libraries at http://www.librarybytes.com/2007/09/more-thoughts-on-learning-libraries.html

Yesterday at our Peninsula Center Library Advisory Committee ( a group of community members interested in the library)  One of the committee members, a retired librarian, made an eloquent plea for us not to abandon the systems and structures (her example was the structure of a catalog that can be searched very much like a traditional card catalog) that older adults are familiar with.  This generated an enrgetic energetic discussion about the challenge of serving the needs, skills, and learning/information seeking behaviors of our older community members  vs the very different needs and behviors of other groups such as kids and teens.  In this context I particularly appreciated the comment from Helene:

"A learning library should empower users to achieve their goals, not provide libraries with a means to push forward our own personal objectives (and yes, admit it... every organization has personal objectives that sometimes counter customer's needs - it's only natural).

I think the challenge here for many us in libraries is to realize that when we can abandon our own personal agendas in favor of our user's needs (and put them first at the top of the pyramid), we not only make our libraries more valuable to our community, but we also create a cascading effect that saturates the insecurities that drove those personal agendas in the first place.

BTW: The pyramid I see here is inverted with users filling up the the top plateau and library staff at the tiny pointed base, supporting this huge community through a flexible and adaptable balancing act that allows everyone to achieve success."

Now there's a challenge!

Comments

[Jeff]

Thanks for the link. The key for libraries in the future is to place more control in the hands of the users. Web 2.0 tools help do that in pieces. I think we need to have a two pronged strategy. Empower users so that they can do some of this work themselves. Those who cannot do it themselves, will still have the library's services just as they area. It's a fun way to go and it will end up being less work and happier patrons. What could be better?

[Helene]

Hi Katherine,

I 2nd Jeff's thought. We do need to build a two pronged services approach. But the good thing is that with more and more younger users appreciating self-service type services (I use the word services here too much, but can't think of a better alternative right now) that empower them to use the library as they want, we create more opportunities to help those other users who greatly appreciate the more tradition hand-held approach. It's a win-win for everyone!