Thing #15: On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

The various articles on Library 2.0 have many common ideas. The authors point out that 2.0 technology is a way to continuously improve library services, and that acceptance of and openness to implementing these tools will be critical to the library's future success as an institution. I appreciate one author's point that libraries should not be obsessed with gathering technology just because it is something new (what he cleverly calls "technolust"), but they should always keep the user and the user's primary purposes in mind. I think this is a very good point. I believe that libraries will find several of these tools to be quite useful not only in providing access to information, but to promote library services to a younger crowd. A challenge for libraries will be in instructing older, less computer-literate customers in how they can use these kinds of tools.