Da-daa! Well I finally crawl over the finishing line several months later. I feel like I've just completed the Dakar rally on a bicycle. First of all, hats off to Lynette, Leanne and Mark for coaching us all through the program. Looking back at my posts I seem to have done a fair bit of grumbling and been cynical about the web 2.0 universe more than once but nevertheless I think this has been the most creative and interesting training program we have been offered in years.
Being self-paced meant I often found it hard to find time to work through the exercises as I found it required a bit of concentration to really explore new applications and so the program would end up on the back burner for weeks at a time. There was also the occasional frustration born of working in isolation when confronted with new interfaces that just didn't work for no apparent reason, were not that intuitive or had online help that was not that helpful. That is all part of the environment though - there are bugs and glitches, people search and browse in different ways and something that is obvious to one person is utterly obscure to another. I think the group workshops were a great way to overcome those issues (even though I rarely got along to them). Not only have I learned heaps I am actually applying new web 2.0 tools and it has changed my perception of the web. I have recently set up a wiki for my classmates at uni, and now add all my bookmarks to del.icio.us - very handy.
I am currently grappling with meebo and the IM thing and am pretty unimpressed at the moment because it's doing the just not working thing. Then again sometimes the technology works beautifully and the people don't. After putting a chat widget into my wiki I am still the only one who ever seems to be in the room (shades of my childhood budgie burbling away to himself in the mirror, through an increasingly opaque layer of dried budgie saliva). That had a bell on it too. The similarities are disturbing. Still there is nothing like 'doing' to let you understand how something really works. That has been the great experience of this program, that gives you that really direct sense of understanding, personal investment and functionality offered by the web 2.0 environment. Permission to play has been a revelation as an opportunity to learn about emerging technology.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
#17 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0...
Nearly at the end. I read a few of the the Library2 pieces - David Lee King 'Library 2.0 ripples' and the OCLCnewsletter There are lots of clever observations but one thing that smacks you in the face is the zeal of these pieces. I was struck by the emotional quality of this writing as they outline an imminent information utopia of unfettered universal access, harmonious collaboration and the warmth of an online community that never sleeps, free of information poverty or disease. Cool, let's party! And what's with the "Hi I'm a mac" cutouts of librarian 2.0s holding cute props like oars. If you don't embrace it your get called names like "luddite" and warnings of being LEFT BEHIND!It's a bit odd actually because it's hard to believe anyone is reading these posts *except* librarian 2.0s. Zealots make me uncomfortable. There is definitely a particular mise en scene that accompanies the current web/learning 2.0 discussion. Still revolutions are bound to get people excited and an information revolution is no exception. I think the threat of being left behind is a little exaggerated tho. Revolutions aren't generally invitation only events. If you are there at the right place and time, you're in it dude.
I think declaring the death of print collections is a bit premature also. There is no doubt the balance in service provision in library is swinging rapidly toward the online environment but Wendy Schultz's model is persuasive. Library 2.0 should absorb or contain Library 1.0, and just plain library before that. It's not about rejecting the previous model it's about adapting the best of it, adding new stuff and keeping the some of stuff people don't want to lose even if you think its useless. You can find a whole archeology of knowledge living in our library at once and that's a good thing. Diversity is a good thing. It's very easy to be seduced by the virtual, but the physical remains important. In 2001 the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. I can google them and still see a picture of them in seconds but wouldn't it be better if they were still there?
I think declaring the death of print collections is a bit premature also. There is no doubt the balance in service provision in library is swinging rapidly toward the online environment but Wendy Schultz's model is persuasive. Library 2.0 should absorb or contain Library 1.0, and just plain library before that. It's not about rejecting the previous model it's about adapting the best of it, adding new stuff and keeping the some of stuff people don't want to lose even if you think its useless. You can find a whole archeology of knowledge living in our library at once and that's a good thing. Diversity is a good thing. It's very easy to be seduced by the virtual, but the physical remains important. In 2001 the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. I can google them and still see a picture of them in seconds but wouldn't it be better if they were still there?
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