Shelf Check and Web 2.0

[Bonnie Dixon]

Have a look at cartoon #180 from Shelf Check, a great library cartoon that I really enjoy.

This cartoon says a lot about jumping on the bandwagon of Web 2.0 applications. I think this is fine in your personal life - I have many accounts I have signed up for and stopped using pretty quickly, or have not used at all (in particular - Twitter, Blogger, Jaiku, Zoho, Netvibes and probably heaps more I have completely forgotten) and this causes very few problems for me, but for an organisation it is a bit of a different story.

Not that I think that EVERY innovative activity must be discussed and evaluated to death (as they are in many organisations) until it is old news, but I do think that libraries need to think about their users and their needs before jumping onto something new all the time.

It will be interesting to see what our speakers have to say on this topic at Beyond The Hype.

[Clare Thorpe]

Hee hee. I'm an believer in active abandonment. By all means try it but if a web 2.0 application doesn't work for you abandon it for something better. There's so many options out there we should be able to find the right tool for each of us.

[Linda Gay]

That's a great cartoon. I'm so glad that it's not only me who is interested but rather overwhelmed with so many choices. I guess it's all about context and what is useful for one person may not be useful for everyone. In libraries I suppose we really need to consider what the customers will really need and be prepared to assist them if necessary. I like Clare's attitude of active abandonment. Sounds like a very functional way to whether the storm of new Web 2.0 applications.