23 Things: #15

Thing 15 completed.

Wikipedia's Web 2.0 was a bit too technical for me in parts, but one thing that stuck was the mention of Amazon's having made user comments available predates Web 2.0 as a term or concept.

Walt Crawford's Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0" was tedious to plow through although some of his overarching perspectives were noteworthy as I interpret them:

• "Library 2.0" is unnecessarily confrontational and potentially alienating;
• implying that anything previous to "Library 2.0" is worthless is throwing the baby out with the bathwater;
• over-emphasis on the technology side of Library 2.0 may increase the chasm between the haves and have-nots among our patrons;
• "Library 2.0" advocates who describe their patrons as tec-savvy may not necessarily be describing all their patrons;
• "Library 2.0" doesn't directly address one of the library's most primary missions: circulating books and other materials.

I do think, though, that when Walt criticizes Talis for its assertion that Amazon and Google threaten the relevance of today's libraries, he may be underappreciating the influence that these resources, especially Google, have on the public and the public's perception of libraries.