Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries

Citation

Barker, P. (2008), "Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries", The Electronic Library, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 758-759. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470810910783

Numerous important developments have been made under the banner of “Web 2.0”. From an end‐user's perspective, many of these have been responsible for making the web a more participative environment. The original web allowed information originators to push their wares to consumers. Now, with Web 2, consumers can push information both to each other and back to originators. The most well known Web 2 concepts are probably “Web services” and “dynamic Web sites”. The latter category includes such items as wikis, weblogs, RSS feeds, mashups, instant messaging, remote virtuality and social networking sites. Undoubtedly, Web 2.0 offers many challenges and opportunities for libraries. This book describes some of these and the ways in which they are being addressed by researchers and developers in academic libraries.

The book is based around a collection of 12 case studies each of which makes up a chapter in the book. The editor of the monograph describes it as a hybrid publication since part of it is published on paper (as a conventional static book) and part of it has been/is being published electronically in the form of a dynamic wiki (hosted on the MediaWiki platform). The wiki is intended to be used to reflect ongoing, post‐paper‐publication developments in (and the experience gained by) each of the projects that are described in the book. Interestingly, the last page of each of the chapters in the book ends with a URL that directs its readers to the corresponding “continuation” entry in the book's wiki at: http://arcl.ala.org/L2Initiatives/. The updates to the wiki can be tracked either on the site itself or by using an RSS feed.

The various chapters contained in this book reflect some of the different ways in which Web 2.0 technologies are being used to realise the requirements of Library 2.0. This term is defined within one of the case studies (Chapter 6, p. 83) as being “about networking and putting people in contact with other people, but it is also about putting machines in contact with other machines”. This latter requirement, of course, underpins the creation of the web services upon which many Library 2.0 developments critically depend.

Some of the important developments described in this book include: exploring the implications of Library 2.0 in relation to future developments of the OPAC (making it more usable and responsive to the needs of users) and extending the library's presence “beyond its walls”. There are numerous examples of the use of weblogs and wikis for a variety of different promotional, educational, instructional and information dissemination purposes within libraries. In some projects, instant messaging has been employed for the provision of real‐time, on‐demand help and assistance – particularly in the context of reference work. The use of social networking systems, such as MySpace and Facebook, has also been explored as tools for implementing information literacy courses and outreach activities. One of the projects describes an interesting application of Second Life for the creation of a virtual library system; others discuss how systems like YouTube and Flickr are being deployed. Some of the projects also outline how web services can be used to provide new approaches to library provision and/or new services therein (such as rating/voting facilities, related item lists, data mining tools, search clouds and folksonomies).

Libraries have always been and, for the foreseeable future, will continue to be important agents for providing access to information in all its various guises. Naturally, as the future unfolds libraries will need to respond both to ongoing developments in relevant areas of technology and, of course, to the needs of their users. Bearing this in mind, one important consideration for the future, that is identified within one of the case studies (Chapter 5, p. 71), is the need for libraries to “support and sustain new conversations and conversational media alongside those preserved in the printed word and its analogues”. As a very laudable aim for the future, I think this is a very apt note upon which to conclude my review of this really splendid book.