Web 2.0 revisited

I read the OCLC newsletter when I began this segment of the tutorial and find myself agreeing and nodding a lot. I believe we will probably always have books and hard resources that people will want to borrow, (it is difficult curling up in bed with a laptop screen to read your favourite novel) but I think the 'we must make sure we have it on the shelf just in case someone might want it ' idea is well past it's use by date. With the amount of information on the planet and the exponential rate at which it is growing, we can never hope to have a little something for everyone, just in case. Instead I think that as librarians we need to be developing an interest within our borrowers to encourage them to embrace the technological world. It never ceases to amaze me just who 'out there' is online and who once they are shown the door to online resources will embrace it. We need to stop prejudging who will and wont use online resources and probably not even use the IT terminology but show instead. If you ask someone do they use a computer they are likely to down play their involvement yet admit to writting letters, storing their photos or sending e-mails. We are all tightly bound up in this information and the only way to feel secure with it is to use it, not let it (or IT) use us.

I looked at www.revolutionhealth.com
www.cocktailbuilder.com
and of course I find I have been using two other sites at least as part of this tutorial.
Revolution health is easy to use and is great for providing profile specific information. Cocktail builder, also a clear, useful and easy to use site is a great way to create a drink where all the components are meant to be together. Flickr and Picasa are both easy to use and most of the photos on my Blog have passed through one or the other. Have put a pic here to show how I cropped and enhanced a picture taken too far away with bad lighting. Initially you couldn't see me behind the wheel and while it still isn't all that great...tis better.

I can see that the library could develop a site which allows a person to put in, their name, email, the genre they prefer, say Romances, with drop downs to select things such as sexy, adventure, love triangles, lost loves or some such... and the borrower could concieviably be given a list of authors whose writing we hold and could meet there needs. Link all that to their Account and they can request from the page as well. Set it up as RSS and invite them to establish a blogline (or eqivelent) and they would be notified of new purchases by their favourite authors as well. The technology is available it just needs putting together. We need to stop living chained to the status quo but use the key of our imagination to set us and those we serve free.