Curmudgeon 2.0

These are, I freely admit, my very superficial first impressions of Library 2.0 based on the reading of a couple of articles, and over a decade wandering around randomly on the Internet, grazing on anything that looks interesting.

I am something of a technology junkie, and by extension something of an Internet junkie as well. I love cool gizmos and gadgets and things that spin and make pretty lights in the night. If my apartment were on fire, my evacuation plans call for me to evacuate in order of importance: 1) Me, 2) My cats, 3) My computer. I'm the only person I know (as far as I know) who owns a robotic vacuum cleaner (my lovely white Roomba).

My geek credentials somewhat established then, I have to admit that 'Web 2.0' and 'Library 2.0' haven't made much of a mark on my horizon. Yes, the terms are out there, floating around, but give me a book or magazine article with either of those terms in the title, and my brain starts making its way for the door. The powers that be, however, have deemed it important that the library employees that be learn something of these things, so I have gritted my teeth and dived in.

This is where I should report then, how the veil has lifted from my eyes to reveal the brave and fascinating new worlds of 'Library 2.0' and the exciting tools it offers us, the library workers, to offer our patrons to energize, empower, and involve them in the library.

Library Curmudgeon 2.0 says this smells far more like a marketing tool than it does a Brave New Approach to being a library. First we had Web 2.0, then there was Business 2.0, and now we've got Library 2.0. I've seen the terms Reading 2.0, Health 2.0, and Education 2.0, not to mention 3.0 iterations, being thrown around as well. I suspect we're early in the game yet, we've yet to see Television 2.0, Automotive 2.0, or (heaven help us) McDonald's Happy Meal 2.0. The best my poor brain can make out it that 'Anything' 2.0 means grabbing as many of the cool/wow/'everyone is using them' Internet/High Tech gizmos that you can and using them to browbeat/ inspire the customer into spending more time with you than they would under the old ways of doing things. More generically, (I'm scanning Google news for '2.0' now to see how the term is being used in various headlines), I see the Salt Lake City Weekly positing that "(Sarah) Palin is either Dan Quayle 2.0 or a performing seal". In this case, I suppose that Dan Quayle 2.0 is a term for the next generation of vice-presidential-ness for good or for bad. I'm guessing the writer of the article isn't highly optimistic that she'll revolutionize the vice presidency.

I'm reassured to learn that I'm not alone in thinking Anything 2.0 is the same old PR spin of corralling a mess of old and new Internet and tech stuff, bundling it up as a package, slapping a neon paint job on the box and a brand of HighTechInteractiveNew&Exciting!(TM). The American public likes their concepts tied up into nice neat visual 1-minute spots with a catchy label thrown on to make it all sparkle and stick in their minds, or at least that seems to be the prevailing wisdom of marketing things (be the things microcomputers, deodorant, political issues, life insurance, or government services). At first glance, Library 2.0 seems a pretty shiny marketing bundle to this technophile, but then again I enjoy watching commercials to make fun of them. I'll see what the Curmudgeon in me makes of this particular package.


So one more Library 2.0 tutorial completed. Lesson 2 is creating a blog and blogging about Lesson 1 (some slightly moth-eaten articles on Library 2.0). Done and done.