Week 6, Thing #15 Three great articles on 2.0

Comments on #1: Michael Stephens “Into a new world of librarianship.” We have heard the mantra of “user-centered” many times, but Michael Stephens says it well and creates from it a paradigm for evaluating new technology: “Does it put users together with the information and experience they seek?”
Comments on #2: Rick Anderson “Away from the Iceberg.” Love the picture with the oars (tag this one “metaphor” also!) Great insights on the way people are accessing information and the urgent need for libraries to change along with the times or risk becoming totally obsolete. I don’t think print collections will become obsolete, but I do agree the library has to extend beyond the facility and things can’t be so hard to find (oops, I mean “access”) that it requires special training to use a library. Hmm . . what does that mean for my freshman library orientation?
Comments on #3: Dr. Wendy Schulz, “To a temporary place in time . . . on the way to the library experience of the future.” Freudian slip – I first typed this title omitting the word “experience,” which would change the subtitle to “on the way to the library of the future” (thinking of it as a facility) rather than the “library experience of the future” (thinking of it as a total experience). Libraries as “mind gyms?” “idea labs?” “art salons?” a “knowledge spa?” Wow! Sign me up, and bring along the million dollar budget to make that happen. This gives me a great business idea – the private library, with monthly fees and “trainer/librarians” to guide the patrons in their pursuit of knowledge and aesthetics. Let’s write a business plan and make this happen! Libraries run by the government have been under funded, with underpaid professionals, and obsolete collections. Private enterprise libraries run by trained librarians in the era of the knowledge economy? That totally makes sense.