Library 2.0 Thoughts...

Laura B. Cohen's blog's penultimate post is entitled "Snake Oil, Bandwagons, and Library 2.0". It references a blog by John Blyberg which I thought was largely on the money. Both are good reads if you want a positive and a cynical view. I think Mr. Blyberg makes a very good observation - there is a difference between the technology and the product. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you "do" (have obtained) the technology. You've simply bought a product. It probably won't integrate with your other products, and you will probably be forced to either dump it or some other product you purchased thinking it would play nicely with yet some other product. "Library 2.0" is presenting us with more problems than it is solving.

I'm worried about the library profession.

Libraries used to be good at sizing up real situations and applying standards and best-practices to ensure efforts weren't being wasted, and that future innovation would be accommodated.
Five years ago, there was a great deal of buzz about the demise of technical services. Outsourcing of cataloging and acquisitions was just around the bend - even physical processing was going to be carried-out by approval plans and jobbers. Serial departments wouldn't be needed - everything would be online.

Of course, this isn't happening. Instead we see tech service departments (yes, ours) increasingly stretched to the limit by an ever changing landscape of incompatible systems and products provided to us by disparate vendors with few standards and procedures.
We seem to approach technology like it was a shopping cart. Vendors tell us what we need, what is expected by our patrons(although the recent survey of incoming students seems to cast doubt on what students are actually using). Software as a service is "the next big thing"- further taking the actual nuts and bolts of technology out of the library. And so why should any librarians actually set up a web-server, write an application or learn XML? It's all being handled by vendors who are acting in our best interests... DON'T BELIEVE IT!

We should be hiring a new kind of library employee who knows regular expressions, Ruby on rails, MARC records, SQL, and Perl. They should be excited by community-based free and open software. They need to know their way around a server, and be empowered to experiment. They might not even need to have an MLS (OMG!), but might actually be invited to discuss topics at top-secret Library Council meetings. Things are changing, we need to change too.
We need to re-evaluate employee work-flow and adjust what is being done in both tech services and public services, using technology to reach more people, and make things easier - not more complicated.

Finally, we should be demanding that vendors provide openly - extensible tools which are standards-based, and are well documented.