Adios, 23 Things

I have been immersed in Library 2.0, social software in libraries, for the last 9 months or so. Since we conceived the idea of doing 23 Things and the TPZ3 was formed, and I registered for a library school course in Social Software in Libraries, it has been what I do at work and at home. I have learned a great deal about blogs, wikis, IM, VOIP, social networking, social bookmarking, even MUVEs (Multi-User Virtual Environments, e.g. Second Life). I learned that blogs can be useful as well as narcissistic, that wikis rule for coordinating on a project or even being a substitute collaborative web site of sorts; these sites are built by the users, and though you can erase everything by accident, you can't break a wiki because of the history feature. I learned that Google Docs& Spreadsheets are equally cool for collaborative work, that I won't be spending much time in Facebook or MySpace, that IMing is useful and we should be doing IM reference (but Twitter is aptly named), and that I've got to finish SJSU SLIS before I have to take courses in SecondLife. I have established blogs, scanned photos and put them up on Flickr and received many comments, had people comment on the house where I live from my personal Flickr site, taught people who outrank me in the library hierarchy what I had just recently learned, pissed off the archivist at the Museum of Art and History and a senior librarian here and possibly a webmaster, nagged people to post photos to the youth services blog, and felt pride when people have voluntarily and enthusiastically participated in projects I was allowed to do for both the SCPL and SJSU SLIS.

I think this is a great program even though I tend to agree with Walt Crawford about the hype of "Library 2.0" and the reality of Library 2.0. My fear is that management will cross off the successful completion of this program (and it has been a success), congratulate themselves and us, and go on as before. There is an election, a move to a new building and many other things happening very soon. I think there will be a push from below to adopt and adapt more of these new technologies for the library, and in many ways these free or low-priced services are the econo way to go.

However, issues of control play a big part in not jumping in with the hype. For instance, I am convinced that Flickr is nice for photos of recent library events and that historic photos should be on our site with consistent controlled subject headings, but the new site itself will be more interactive, more 2.0, and will have a comments section. Ann Young and Heidi are actually right, but the earthquake photos project sure was fun and I look forward to helping move the photos to the new site. The issue is control: what happens when you put all your stuff out there on a corporate site that could be bought or could fold tomorrow, or could put up the kind of advertising we might not want to have associated with the SCPL. If we have server space and a great IT staff, why not put it on our server. Nevertheless, for those libraries who have no IT staff, anyone can build a pbwiki or post a photo collection to Flickr; so these become the econo solution, but the cost is control. I bet that econo solution would make the folks in Jackson County, Oregon happy about now, though.

You think I'm rambling yet? I haven't even touched on copyright issues.

In the past 9 months, I have learned a lot, experienced much frustration and some sleep deprivation, and also had a lot of fun. I am relieved and a little sad that it is over, but is it really? Many blogs and wikis have been established that will continue the day after tomorrow. I don't think that the whole social software package will turn into a pumpkin in this system tomorrow night. In fact, each week someone here at the SCPL approaches me about setting up some sort of Web 2.0/Library 2.0 application for work or personal use. I think that all of this social software provides some useful tools to know about, and I am glad to see our system taking on the lifetime learning project begun by the shift that 2.0 is. It is an evolutionary change, but a profound and quick one, and we clearly are not dinosaurs.