Away from Icebergs/ Libraries in Another Place & Time

The two articles that I chose to read regarding Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 were Avoiding Icebergs and To a Temporary Place and Time.

In the "Icebergs article, the "just in case collection" and "come to us"expectation were two points that really jumped out at me. Although I consider myself a ruthless weeder, I admit that I am still of the generation that feels the books must be sitting on the shelves for those "what if & just in case" moments. Although I rarely, if ever, have complaints when I need to provide customers with information from the Internet, since there are no books available on their topic on the shelves, I still feel the need to have them there. Reality is, most customers are just happy to get some help getting the information they need ASAP. I also really feel that we have to make our libraries what our customers want, rather than what we think they need or should want. This is especially important in a public library setting. Yes, let our customer sip a coffee, plug in their laptop and THEN checkout some of our great materials! Let's have the teens in for gaming, so they know that the library is about them too. Lots of possibilities here--we just need to jump out of our library boxes a bit.

The article about libraries past and present really helped put things into the proper perspective for me as well. I am very quick to defend the sensory experience that is so much a part of reading--leafing through a magazine or opening a newspaper...opening the crisp pages of a brand new book. But, these ARE just the experiences of the era that I live in. Do I long to read news are stories from pictures painted on a cave wall? No way! I love the idea of libraries as being our "mind gyms and knowledge spas" in the future! I hope I am around to see some of it!