Week Six, Thing Fourteen and Fifteen

Technorati is an interesting tool. I certainly found more blogs covering a greater number of topics this way than my usual browsing technique, to click "next blog" at the top of my own blog page and scroll through random works rather aimlessly.

As far as tagging goes, it seems like a fairly positive thing. The only draw back I can see is that tags can be whatever the author thinks they should be: there is no shared vocabulary (or if there is, not one that is shared by everyone). It seems that for tagging to be most efficient, there should be set tag terms (much like the vocabulary for cataloging and searching) so that bloggers who choose to tag their work can maximize the effectiveness of the tag for other readers. I have absolutely no idea how such a list could be put into place, considering the global and relatively unmoderated nature of blogs and blogging, but if there were a way, it would be really useful.

It's funny, but as much as I have been hearing and using the term "libraries 2.0", I haven't really stopped to think about what this means. The term, to me, completely demonstrates the shift that not only libraries, but popular culture, have undergone in recent years. Libraries are no longer thought of solely as repositories of books under the care of matronly librarians: now, patrons expect to be greeted with technology such as internet use, tutorials, video presentations, and basic word processing. Gone are the days of a tangible card catalog, gone are the days on written records. The library holdings can be accessed via online databases, and the circulation desk uses programs such as Destiny and Athena to keep track of the materials in and out of the library.

The technologies that typify 2.0, however, are icing on the cake: library blogs maintained for the entertainment of others, or to provide readers' advisory services, tagging, bookmarks, and Flickr all being used to better serve the community in an unlimited variety of ways. Library 2.0 applications offer unlimited uses, and I am excited to be starting my library career at a time when these technologies are available and increasing constantly.