Conversations about “Library 2.0″ have been on-going for a couple months, related in part to discussions (and a conference) about Web 2.0. The ideas have been developing for much longer, though. Lorcan Dempsey and the folks at OCLC have been developing similar ideas for a number of months. The good folks across the Charles River (Digital Library Research Group) continue to work on DSpace and Semantic Web projects.
Tallis may be the first ILS vendor to engage in the conversation. The white paper by Ken Chad and Paul Miller tries to frame the conversation:
Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0
- The Library is everywhere
- The Library has no barriers
- The Library invites participation
- The Library used flexible, best of breed systems
The paper is worthy of conversation. Fleshing it out is the challenge. The thing missing, or at least not clearly articulated, is the educational mission of the libraries, particularly academic libraries. The white paper feels like it has a bit of a public library slant. Even if I’m correct, the authors appear to be on target in their assessment of user expectation and emerging technologies.