Library School 2.0

[Kathleen Houlihan]

There's been some discussion of late at Library Garden, Life as I know it, and Pimp my Library about why more MSIS students aren't participating in L2 discussions.

I've been thinking about this some more (especially after reading Jennifer's post at Life as I Know It) and I have a few more thoughts (I've got comments at each of those threads above) - We still aren't saying "Library 2.0" at my school, although there's some talk of wikis from the Information Architecture and Usability folks, it's not formal. What I mean to say is that there is no class time devoted to discussing Library 2.0.

So that begs the question: Why not? I've got to assume the professors and at least some of the students (myself included) have heard of Library 2.0; so why aren't we talking about it? I have a few hypotheses about this:

- We're embarassed to start the discussion. We want to be dignified and serious (this is Graduate School after all) and we're worried people won't take us seriously if we mention blogs or web 2.0 gadgets.

- We don't know how to tie web 2.0 to the things we're learning. This is a distinct possibility. It's hard to make that leap sometimes... I'm taking cataloguing right now, and I have no idea how to connect web 2.0 to my study of Marc records and XML. No clue. How would I bring that up as part of a class discussion? I'm ready and willing to be an advocate at my school for L2, but I don't want to sound like an idiot because I can't come up with a connection.

- Too much history, not enough crystal-ball gazing. We do like our history in library school. And there are so many things to study that demand our attention. Maybe the difficulty is that there's no Library of the Future course. Perhaps we need a required seminar where students argue/discuss the future of libraries. I'd take a class like this in a heartbeat.

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I'm cross posting my comment from Library Garden because I'd like to open up the discussion to all of you all. What do you think? Is it important to get MSIS students talking about L2? If so, how do we start? How do we make those connections so those of us who are aware of L2 can bring it up in class?

I'm thinking of asking this question on our school's listserv.

[Jennifer Parsons]

Well, if there really was a Library of the Future course, I suspect it would be more of a Web 2.0 course, where a community brings its ideas together using one (or more) Web meetings. In short, it would be something more like Ning...using a suite like Sakai or Blackboard.

One consideration might be cost. A lot of technology that Library and Web 2.0 uses is of considerable expense, something that a graduate student does not necessarily have, but which a library or library consortium would be able to afford.

Another thought might just be the nature of the Library 2.0 community. Most communities in this field are either professional (like the ALA and its satellites), or they are local (e.g., a local library and the population it serves). MLIS students haven't exactly chosen a community yet-- at least not one that's as permenant.

However, I do think you're right-- Web 2.0 is only brushed upon at my school. That's why I've sought out and joined places like Ning, deciding to jump feet first into the subject rather than have to play catch-up as soon as I get out of school.

What says everyone else? And how do you think this subject reflects upon the nature of community in Web 2.0?

[Bill Drew]

I have disagree with a couple of points made by Jennifer:

1. "A lot of technology that Library and Web 2.0 uses is of considerable expense" This is not really the case. Look at this network. It does not cost you anything to set up a community. Blogs, wikis, RSS services, Google tools and much more are all available for free.

2. "Most communities in this field are either professional (like the ALA and its satellites), or they are local" This statement makes it sound as if the professional communities exclude MLIS students. That is far from the case! Students are welcome here and on most librarian "community" sites.

Actually I think some MLIS programs are discussing Library 2.0. They might call it something else like participatory computing or social computing. R. David Lankes at Syracuse University is doing research in this area.

[Kathleen Houlihan]

I'm curious about what classes you think L2 would be most relevant in. Perhaps the librarians who know they'll be doing Children's and YA librarianship may be discussing this (just guessing since I'm not in this group) but I just completed a semester that included a course in management, one in Information literacy, and one in reference services, and none of those mentioned L2, participatory/social computing, or networking. I'm still not entirely sure which classes I should be taking to expose myself to the academic discussion of L2 more.

The only time I heard anything about RSS, blogs, wikis, etc. was once during a panel discussion. But there hasn't been any class time or reading devoted to these developments. I know my program recently went through re-accreditation, and that they are eager to shake up the curriculum once it's all over... perhaps I should just be patient?

[RefLibrarian]

I just finished my MSIS from Florida State University. We did not discuss "Library 2.0" per se. However, my "Information Needs of Young Adults" class did include an assignment to post to a cooperative class blog (on blogger) and comment on other people's posts. It seems like the Library 2.0 ideas are being implemented first for young adults. My library system has only one blog and that is a teen blog.

[disedlibrarian]

One L2 item that should be mentioned in management classes is how to deal with someone who wants to try a project. When I was in library school, the only part mentioned was financial--can your library afford it and how to sell the idea to those with the cash. But so many L2 projects don't take a lot of cash, they take TIME! How much staff time can you afford to lose to a project that may not go anywhere? What if you try something and it flops? You're not out a lot of money, but you may be out in terms of staff morale, public relations, etc. And, in some ways this can be worse, what if your little tiny project succeeds? Can you scale it? How do you sell it to the rest of the staff, or the library board? I guess this would be sort of project management, which was not covered at all in my classes.

[Kathleen Houlihan]

By the way... I love the project you linked to at Syracuse: Participatory Networks: the Library as Conversation. I'm going to read that from beginning to end. What a great resource!

[Jennifer Parsons]

Well, with point 1, Bill-- correct, but a lot of the transitional programs, the ones that bridge Library 1.0 to 2.0, are more expensive. Keep in mind as well that in order to access any of these programs, you need access to a desktop or notebook computer. While it's true that the hardware has become less expensive in recent years, it's still a considerable investment.

As far as number 2, you're also correct, but that's what I was driving at. I'm sorry for not making my point more clearly. But, because most professional library groups make the effort to incorporate MLIS students, those students may flock to those more permenant communities, as opposed to library school communities, where participation is short-lived and dissolved upon graduation.

However, at the moment, I think we're at a point MLIS curriculum evolution. After a couple of years of Library 2.0 making considerable headway into the library and information professions, some schools are just starting to wade into Web 2.0 technology as a kind of learning and library tool. I think it's matter of academia catching up with the innovations made by a lot of very good librarians in the field.

[Lisa VS]

"MLIS curriculum evolution" - I fully agree. I am in my second semester at San Jose State University. I feel that in my short time "here" we have been fully immersed in the Web 2.0 world and by extension have been challenged to think Library 2.0. I put the "here" in quotes because students my choose to take the courses totally on-line. Here is the link to our school's homepage: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/index.htm

I just read a listserv posting from the SJSU SLIS department announcing new courses for the 2008 Spring Semester:

"Meredith Farkas will be teaching “Building the Social Library Online”. It is a great opportunity to take a class from a well known Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 innovator.

Try out Second Life. As Dr. Haycock (Director, SLIS) says - the job is not so much about us as about the patrons we will serve and the environment in which we will find ourselves. A Pew Internet and American Life study found that 9 out of 10 of young people aged 17-19 socialize online, get their news online, and do research online. Gardner Research produced a research study that argued that by 2011 80% of Internet users will be in a virtual world or immersive environment such as Second Life. We want to make the library relevant for the digital natives (the generations that have grown up with the Internet, IM, text messaging, multi-user domain games, and virtual reality). We have reinvented the library so many times during history in order to make it relevant for our patrons and we are doing it again.
We have also taken a fresh look at Libr 251 (Interface Design for Information Services) and it will focus on Web Usability."

As you can see our Library School at SJSU is staying at the front of the innovative use of Web 2.0 capabilities in libraries by utilizing these tools in our classes.
The course I am taking this semester, that led me to this site, is titled "Digital Communication" - focusing on how to communicate effectively using e-mail, blogs, wikis etc.

Best regards,
Lisa

[Laurie Bridges]

I posted about this topic on Library Garden. And, I have to say (with some embarrassment) that last year, when I attended an in-service in the late summer at my local university library (while working a full time job in marketing and attending my MLIS program part-time) there was a web 2.0 workshop at the in-service. I honestly had not heard the term web 2.0 before the in-service! I mean, I'd been using all the popular tools...delicious, myspace, facebook, and I'd been keeping a blog for several years. However, I just hadn't heard the term labeled "web 2.0". Which left me feeling a little foolish and somewhat cranky that the topic hadn't been at least introduced in my MLIS. I mean, that could be a real deal breaker for graduating librarians if they're in an interview and they don't know about the web 2.0 tools that are at the forefront of many librarian's minds.

[Kathleen Houlihan]

I'm the same way... In my second semester I latched on to information literacy and also library administration/marketing as areas I'd like to pursue, but we never mentioned Library 2.0 in any of my classes. Then when I finished this semester, I decided to do more research on the subject of library marketing and see what other libraries/librarians were doing... that's when I discovered the term Library 2.0. I felt kind of dumb, too :) I feel like I've been playing catch-up learning for the past two weeks... thus the info overload post!

[Aaron Dobbs]

I just posted this discussion to my MSLS alma mater's student email list. Let's see what happens :)

[Kathleen Houlihan]

So did I... I asked the list to contribute to the discussion here and I hope they will!