Building Academic Library 2.0

Notes from Meredith Farkas' presentation at the LAUC-Berkeley Academic Library 2.0 Conference. I'll add some commentary later tonight.

Web 1.0 – democratized access to information

• Users interacted w/ web as consumers; to produce, needed experience, space, etc.

Web 2.0 – all participants in web creation/contribution

• Hubris of 2.0 – assumption that nothing revolutionary happened before 2.0
• More of an evolution, driven by technologies; libraries not the only game in town anymore
  

Academic Library 2.0 – state of mind

• Meeting user names
• Trusting our users (radical trust)
• Getting rid of the culture of perfect (start simple and test, more iterative, not waiting until something is “done”)
• Aware of emerging technologies and opportunities
• Learn to extrapolate to see what other types of libraries/non-libraries are doing
• Looking outside of library world for applications, opportunities, inspiration
  

Building Academic Library 2.0 Externally

• Know your users; look beyond netgen stereotypes: what do they value, how do they research (Univ Rochester anthro study); go into their space and ask for feedback
• Question everything: do you still need to be sitting at the refdesk when all of your ref contact is IM? Dropping Dewey for bookstore-style classification
• Communicate better with patrons (blogs, etc.) – including by library directors, accepting and using feedbackHighlight collections with tools like Flickr; RSS for new collections; adding our resources to Wikipedia
• Embed services where they are: Facebook and Myspace, portal in WebCTBuild participation: take advantage of our users’ knowledge of these subjects in saved resources (wikis); social bookmarking (PennTags)
• Better at building partnerships
• Don’t focus on technology, or abandon constituents who won’t use these tools
  

Building Academic Library 2.0 Internally

• Build learning culture; not everyone one gets to go to conferences; create in-house learning (Learning 2.0 at PL of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County)
• Develop risk-tolerant culture; “perpetual beta”
• Collect knowledge internallyCapitalize on your network: Facebook as online rolodex
• Be transparent, internally as well as externally
• Good ideas can come from anyone and anywhere
• Nurture talent (she heard this from some LJ Movers & Shakers at IL--that they weren't feeling appreciated at their institutions)
• Be agile (need 3 mos to decide on blogging software?); Empower staff to make some decisions
• Involve staff from all levels in planning; helps avoid tunnel vision
• Avoid technolust; start with needs, then look tools
• Understand staff member’s needs and limitations (why people fear change; understand learning styles; some staff need more than just written instructions—prefer hands-on instructions/help)Time must be devoted; staff not given time for this, they way we do with reference shifts, etc.
• Keeping up w/ new technologies and share with colleagues – make part of job description
• Need new staff, or shuffle w/in existing staff with these interests
  

Question we were left with: Is your organization currently structured to make this happen?