10. Web 2.0 and Libraries

I read two of the pieces posted for #10, the first by Anderson and the second by Stephens. They both have something in common, a trait I believe isn't quite as common for those of us who work in public libraries. That trait is one of "techiness" (if I may use such a term), and is driven by a very narrow vision of how the public uses public libraries. Put another way, they both seem to be rather ignorant of the fact that a good-sized percentage of library patrons are really not that much into technology. Believe it or not, we still have people who come into my library and ask whether we still have card catalogs! (Yes, the card and drawer kind.) These are people mostly older than 35, some, if not many, who have been busy doing other things in their life than worrying about what's up with Windows Explorer 5.1 or what their neighbor's blog is gossiping about. They want books, or maybe an ocassional movie (might still still be using a VCR even--gasp!). They like the fact that we can look things up for them, because they don't want to learn how to use a computer unless they absolutely have to. So when Anderson talks about the "user's preferred environment" being the internet, he's showing the bubble he lives in. The bubble other people live in has very little to do with the internet. Now, admittedly, the more simplified the OPAC is, the more likely some of those people will be to use it. But that's only true for some of them. Stephens shows the same kind of bubble when he blithely talks about librarians IMing--as if the majority of pulic library patrons really want to communicate that way, instead of a portion of the teenage population. I'll give Stephens credit for saying this though, that "honest human conversations need to take place...in physical space..." He gets it I think!