Power Shifts and Web 2.0

A couple of days ago I passed along a post from the "Librarians Matter" blog about how "Library 2.0" is really about a fundamental shift in power between library users and librarians. Last night I was continuing to read "Everything is Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger and found that he, too, sees that the new digital technologies result in fundamental shifts in power. In a world where information is embodied in physical objects such as books or newspapers, "These physical limitations on how we have organized information have not only limited our vision, they have also given the people who control the organization of information more power than those who create the information. Editors are more powerful than reporters, and communication syndicates are more powerful than editors because they get to decide what to bring to the surface and what to ignore."

Some readers may be saying to themselves, that's an interesting idea, but what does it have to do with the Palos Verdes Library District?

Try re-writing the last sentence of the quote to read "they have also given the people who control the organization of information more power than those who use the information. Librarians are more powerful than library users…."

The new digital technologies ("Web 2.0") turn this relationship on its head.

While not specifically describing libraries, the following rings as true for us as it does for other institutions –

"We've tried to settle on a single, comprehensive framework for knowledge, with categories so clear and comprehensive that experts can put each thing in its proper place. Institutions grew to maintain the knowledge framework. Their ability to certify experts and to vouch for knowledge made them powerful, and sometimes rich [I guess THAT part doesn't apply to libraries!] So when the miscellaneous shakes our certainty in the nature of knowledge, more than the future of the card catalog is at stake. Because a third-order miscellany is digital, not physical we no longer have to agree on a single framework. Things have their places, not a single place. We get to create our own categories, ones that suit our way of thinking. Experts can be helpful, but in the age of the miscellaneous they and their institutions are no longer in charge of our ideas…These are big changes, but perhaps the most urgent one is this. Over the course of the millennia, we've developed sophisticated methods and processes for developing, communicating, and preserving knowledge. We have major institutions – serious contributors to our culture and our economy – devoted to those tasks. We're good at it. Now we have to invent new ways appropriate to the new shape of knowledge….Put simply, the owners of information no longer own the organization of that information. Control has already changed hands…"

One of my responsibilities as PVLD's Director is to identify, understand, and develops strategies to deal with the external forces that will affect the library district near and short term – be they changes in the housing market that affect our property tax revenues, changing demographics, or technological and societal trends. As is clear to anyone who has been reading this blog, I believe that technology is enabling profound changes in the relationship between people and information, and that unless librarians understand these changes and develop strategies for adapting our services in response the risk of extinction is great. Many librarians will argue that understanding and adapting to changing customer needs has always been a core part of what we do, and to some extent I agree. I also believe, however, that the shift in the relationship between people and information that is being driven by digital technologies is analogous not to the introduction of video cassettes but to the development of the printing press and the accompanying explosion in the availability of the written word. I'd hate to see librarians as the scribes of our day….