Web 2.0 Library

I agree with much of what was written in these article, but one additional item I think should be included is the necessity of training and informing the staff. True, many of the new librarians have grown up in the post Donkey Kong era, and are quite comfortable with the technology, but to keep up with trends and to use new technology in an innovative, useful way still requires some degree of continuing education--not only learning the technology, but to apply it in a useful, library-enhancing way.

Libraries of the future, in order to remain relevant, will have to push themselves into people's consciences. There are so many distractions in peoples' lives, that libraries must compete for attention. If we are passive and wait for people to come to us, then we are doomed. We will always be repositories for a print collection (who wants to bring a laptop to the beach?) but we must try to embrace new technology, or at least the technology that people prefer, and remain relevant to peoples' needs.

I did have a bit of a problem with the "users add value" statement. It depends on the user and their qualifications. If you let morons "add" their input, it dilutes the purity and accuracy of information, so there does need to be professional monitoring to act as quality control agents.