I have been busy with spending down our budget for the end of the fiscal year but am finally continuing on with 23 things. I probably have a different background and orientation than many. I have been a computer geek for years and grew up in Chicago where I had many friends who were web developers and so on. I have used many of the Web 2.0 tools for some time.
As far as how they impact libraries, whether the tools are particularly useful or not, we really have no choice in the matter. If these tools are what our patrons are utilizing, then by all means we should find ways to "meet them where they are." But there is the rub--at least in our smallish, conservative city up here in north Texas, I am just not sure how much of our user base is really interested in using these tools to interact with the library. In our particular situation, it may be a case where it is up to us to be proactive--to be the early adopters that will influence a shift for our users. The fact that we do serve a large population of Gen Y people means that a certain number of them will probably respond and so for a number of reasons it would behoove us to get going on these things.
The burning question, as it is with all of these kinds of innovations, is which ones will shakeout and still be big things in a few years? Which do we really put a lot of time into to develop? There may be no way to know. Maybe the lesson that is with us now is that things will be constantly changing in an exponentially fast way.
I don't know if it is part of the 23 things, but much of what we are seeing today might just be the embryonic steps towards having everyone interact in a sort of post-world wide web world of embodiment and full 3d capabilities (virtual worlds). Things like Metaplace and Second Life probably show us a glimpse of where things are going.
No comments:
Post a Comment