General information

The Open Library: Realizing the Promise and Mitigating the Peril

Cindy Gibbon, Access Services Coordinator of Multnomah County Library (MCL), Oregon, opened the discussion about privacy and intellectual freedom in a web 2.0 world by sharing the results of a study of MCL’s users. Some things MCL users said they want: Notification when requested items are added to the catalog Public comments and recommendations of books read Blogs, podcasts, reference via instant messaging Text message alerts Saved lists of titles checked out or of interest RSS feeds Ability to communicate online with other library patrons She then shared some compelling data from the December 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey about the ubiquity of mobile communications technologies. The bottom line: MCL patrons want a 2.0 library experience. Some library patrons indicated that it is important to them that their library records remain private, and some did not. Cindy pointed out that it is librarians’ responsibility to protect patrons’…

2007

In Your Face(book): Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” said Alan Kay, father of the laptop computer, the apple/mac graphical user interface, and object oriented programming. Ruminations upon this quote kicked off Gerry McKiernan’s presentation on the social networking site Facebook, during which McKiernan used the Swiss Army knife as metaphor for online social networking, and Facebook as one of the multi-use tools. Why should librarians use Facebook? Because it’s a preferred medium of comunication among college-age and younger students as well as, increasingly, the rest of us. Studies indicate that tweens & teens use Facebook to discuss educational/homework topics; Facebook has the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites. So why haven’t more college faculty bought into the concept? McKiernan thinks it’s because some of us (I’ve heard repeatedly over the past couple days that 35 is the cut-off for being “cool” but I don’t believe…

2007

Library 2023: A Provoked Discussion on the Future of Libraries

Why 2023, you ask? Because that’s when Gregg A. Silvis will probably retire. The first question Silvis posed to the participants was, What if there were 100,000,000 books available for free in full text? First the group critiqued NetLibrary’s business model, then brainstormed about a “killer app” that would make ebooks enjoyable to read. Some folks seemed more comfortable than others with the idea of a device that could be directly implanted into the optic nerve. This blogger was quite comfortable using her institution’s new tablet PC to read magazine articles on the airplane on the way to the conference, and just might download an ebook for the trip home. Whatever happens with ebooks, everyone agreed that maintaining equity of access will continue to be an important and central concern for libraries, and that our role as a place for people to connect will continue to be one of our…