On Library 2.0

I found the article by Rick Anderson "Away from the Icebergs" most interesting. As someone who currently buys and selects books for a particular collection at Manukau Libraries, this is definitely something that I have thought about.

As Anderson points out before the Internet, libraries held power in the information marketplace. But now with the internet truly in grained in society libraries have been forced to find new ways to bring services to customers both physcially and virtually. Therefore to stay alive and be relevant to our customers in this information age we need to align our collections and services to that also. For example instead building and collection of print materials start building an collecting materials for a digital collection.

The next article then flows neatly from the first. If we are to build digital collections to keep ourselves relevant and useful to our customers then we as Librarians must be up with the play also. So in this article by Michael Stephens called "Into the World of New Librarianship" can also be title as The 6 Habits of a Highly Effective 2.0 Librarian.

Stephens talks about how we must always engage our customers in the planning of programmes and services that affect them. To not just buy technology just for the sake of it but buy it because it will achieve goals and outcomes decided by your library. As technology dates very fast 2.0 Librarian must plan ahead recognise trends and act strategically and fast to action them.

Would be interested in reading some of the other articles but for now these are two I wish to blog about. Pheeeew!