This network is for Library 2.0 Stuff

Kerrymcc's Page

Kerrymcc's Friends

Started this discussion. Last reply by Brenda Branson Apr 5.

About Me:: I earned my MLS from Texas Woman's University (entirely online!) in 2006. I've been working as an academic reference librarian for the last 2 years, first at a small private college and currently at a large public university. I have also worked as a library assistant at a corporate library, an art museum library, and a naval air station library. My undergraduate degree is in Psychology and I am considering pursuing a 2nd Masters.

Interest in Library 2.0: I currently split my time at work between staffing the reference desk and staffing ASERL's ask-a-librarian service so I see a lot of the confusion and false expectations about what our current level of technology can and can't do. Many library users now expect instant one-liner (or even one word) answers to incredibly complex questions while others are simply overwhelmed by all the electronic "bells and whistles" and the endless flow of new tools and information.

I'm excited about the potential new technology holds for new methods of delivering information services and for encouraging information to be manipulated, shared, and conceived of in entirely new ways but I am frustrated by the current primitive state of Library 2.0 and by some people's alternating fear of it and unrealistic expectations about how it changes libraries and librarianship. I'd like to be involved in the ongoing debate about the direction libraries should take in adapting to new tools and the challenge of providing services and materials for ever-more sophisticated users (side-by-side with technology novices) without leaving behind the core values of the field or forgetting basic common sense.