L2 Ain’t Nothing Without W2
January 8th, 2006Dion Hinchcliffe (A member of the Web 2.0 workgroup) writes about “offshoots” of Web 2.0, which includes a mention of Library 2.0 (L2):
“A very Web 2.0 view of library resources that emphasizes the two-way flow information between library users and the library itself. Lots of interesting material, the Web 2.0 Workgroup even has a major Library 2.0 proponent, Stephen Cohen, as a member.”
I’d hate to be seen as a proponent of something that I don’t, well, promote. As I’ve stated before (and I haven’t yet been convinced otherwise), L2 as a concept is nothing new. “Making the library user centered”: Not new. “Encouraging user participation: Not new. “Feedback in developing library services”: Not new. “The user as a participant, co-creator, builder, and consultant”: Not new. The quotes above come directly from the wikipedia article on L2.
The only thing different between L2 and the supposed L1 is that there are new technologies assisting in the drive for user-centered and user-driven library services. The concept of Web 2.0 is built around technology and it need not be about anything else. L2 only works conceptually if you add the technology piece, but this doesn’t fly because every non-100%-technology-driven industry (which is everything BUT the technology industry) has changed because of 2.0 concepts.
Now that L2 is being discussed as not just technology driven, we can finally get down to the core of what some think it is. I’ll quote from Michael Casey:
“Library 2.0 sees the reality of our current user-base and says “not good enough, we can reach more people”. It seeks to do this through a three-part approach — reaching out to new users, inviting customer participation, and relying on constant change. Much of this is made possible thanks to new technologies, but the services will only be partially tech-based.”
Again, stuff librarians have been talking about for decades. How is this anything new? Constant change: What about fighting censorship, freedom to read initiatives, the entire YA concept, renting cassette tapes, CDs, software, DVD’s, or buying 15 copies of the latest best-seller? Tell me that these concepts have nothing to do with any of the 3 Casey ideas. I can come up with many more examples from library history that fit his ideas. It would seem to me that libraries have always been dealing with the idea of constant change (the “perpetual beta”), being user-driven and trying to being in new users.
My point: L2 is a meaningless concept because we’ve been doing it for decades. Let’s just continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is getting our patrons excited about new technologies that help them collaborate, inspire and learn.
March 31st, 2007 at 9:02 am
[...] L2 並沒有什麼新的東西，只不過應用了一些新的工具。 在 L2 Ain’t Nothing Without W2 這篇中他提到 L2 [...]