Week 6: Exercise 15, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Future

The article that really caught my attention was Dr. Schultz' article, "To a Temporary Place in Time..." This article went beyond Web 2.0! Web 3D, Library 3D, Library 4.0 - Oh no! I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, "Lions and tigers and bears--oh my! I'm barely feeling better about Web 2.0 after these exercises I've been doing. I can't imagine "virtual collections in the 3D world, where books themselves may have avatars and online personalities." I think I will be retired by the time Library 4.0 comes into existence with "libraries as mind gyms; libraries as idea labs; libraries as art salons." This is beyond my comprehension right now.

I really liked Michael Stephen's article, "Into a New World of Librarianship," because he discussed the skills we will need to deal with the Library 2.0 world. I totally agree with him. Stephens states that Librarians 2.0 need to embrace Web 2.0 tools (which many of us are doing now by partipating in this online tutorial). We need to be on the cutting edge of technology/Web 2.0 or the public is not going to see a need for librarians (as we are seeing in some cases now). I have really struggled with using the Internet totally for research--we try to have teachers have the students use both print and non-print in their projects. However, if Internet access is where districts are going, we, as LMTs, need to make sure that we make ourselves indispensible in teaching Internet/Web 2.0 research skills. However, many of the 2.0 tools we are learning in this tutorial cannot be accessed at the school sites because they are blocked. We need to be proponents of Web 2.0 and convince administrators and the Tech Dept. of the advantages to using Web 2.0 tools. For example, I really like Del.cio.us and was going to tag a website at school but Del.cio.us was blocked. I will be talking to the head of our Tech Dept. next week. It is crucial to have access. I have the password to unblock the site, but I want to make sure he knows that I am doing so and it has educational value. I think teachers should have access and be taught how to use Del.cio.us. In fact, they need to go through this tutuorial and learn about Web 2.0 and understand what their students are doing, particularly at the middle school and high school levels.

Library 2.0, for me, means library media teachers need to meet the students at their Web 2.0 level and provide them with opportunities to perform using the tools they use everyday. We need to guide students who don't have access to computers with projects that use the Web 2.0 tools so that they aren't left behind and the digital divide can close. Last, as Michael Stephens says, we need to be "trendspotters." We need to pave the way for technological advances in our district.