Week 6

#15 Web 2.0, library 2.0

In web 2.0 the web becomes a shared, open, network space. Library 2.0 is everywhere , it is participatory and is barrier free.

Libraries have always tried to anticipate the needs of the users and collected books and other materials to satisfy every need of every customer. With the opening up of the web, the demands of the customers will increase, but it will also increase the number of avenues to find that information. This will bring about a big change in the way libraries function.

With the changes in technology, librarians are becoming more like teachers. Every society will have people who move along with technology and those who lag behind. Librarians have to try hard to eliminate the barriers that exist between the patrons and the information they need. As more and more services become available with the click of a button, library patrons will soon be expecting the same from librarians! This is a very scary thought.!

Earlier people used to come into the libraries looking for information.But now libraries are moving out of the four walls and are taking their services to the patrons. OCLC's Open WorldCat which integrates the collections and services of member libraries is an attempt to take libraries to the users.

Librarian 2.0 bases all planning, proposals and services on user needs and wants.User centred libraries break down barriers. Libraries have to use new technologies and new materials to meet the user's needs.Librarians had to visit communities to know their needs, but soon librarians will be participating in online communities.


#14Technorati

I did a keyword search in Technorati for 'learning 2.0 and got 6300 results in blog posts. Even though I put the words in quotation it looked for them separately and brought up all blogs with either 'learning' or '2.0' in it. When I searched for posts tagged 'learning2.0', I got 81 results and got 137 results for the search in the blog directory. The difference in the number of blogs retrieved in each search is amazing. The tag search may be a better and more precise, but we have to think of the right tag!I found the blog of 'The learning librarian' through this search. Technorati could be a useful tool for someone who wants to spread a message through their blog.They can make it popular and easily retrievable by all the major blog search engines.

I looked at the popular blog, searches and tags and was not surprised to find that blogs that advise people how to make money from blogs are very popular!Online marketers and even evangelists are making use of this new technology!!

#13

del.icio.us is a new thing for me. del.icio.us can be used to tag sites and will help to retrieve sites with similar tags easily later. Tags can be anything that will help a person to bookmark and organize websites, but they cannot have spaces in between. One website can be given different tags to denote the different subjects it deals with.It is good to know how other people have tagged the same sites and we can take the same tag or choose a new one. The tags given by different people for a particular site can be seen either as a 'cloud' or as a list. 'Cloud' shows the most used tag in big font and list gives the number of people who have used the tag. For a researcher who has to look into numerous websites for information, tagging can be really helpful.