Web 2.0 - Thing 15

In 1997 I attended a seminar about using the Internet as a journalistic aid. The presenter started off by saying: "Imagine walking into a library and finding all the books on the floor. That's the Internet." More or less I shared his opinion because the only search engine I was familiar with was AltaVista, which had only been out about two years. You put in a search term and got pretty much an unsorted list of EVERYTHING on the Net that included your term. Danish, Spanish, French ... language mattered not ... it was there and you have to hunt for what you needed and hope it was what you wanted.

I say all this because it's what popped into my mind as I was reading over the 2.0 perspectives. Compared to 11 years ago the Internet is almost (I said ALMOST) as organized as a library. There's still a lot of stuff laying around on the floor, but a lot of people have worked hard to make things easier to find. And in making things easier to find the Internet has become an invaluable tool for education, for libraries, for business and for entertainment.

A couple of other things popped out at me, particularly in the Manifesto perspective. In using Web/Learning 2.0 to our advantage we have to overcome mindset challenges. As a librarian during the early days of the Internet it was drilled into my head: DON'T USE THE INTERNET, FIND THE PATRON A BOOK. I still have that argument with myself in my head on occasion, but now the Internet has completely reliable sources. And for the most part one doesn't even have to enter the library to use it. Think databases ... think getting card online.

Second Life is explored in some 23 Things courses. While I personally find it creepy and extremely boring it would be a great way to hold a virtual face-to-face meeting with co-workers scattered around town or across the globe. If you listen to NPR's call-in shows they often have questions from a Second Life character. To me, this best illustrates the point made that library services must be personalized and that we must meet users where they work, study and play. NPR has reached out to folks who feel more comfortable as an animated avatar, but nonetheless, these avatars have valid, intelligent questions to pose.