Tagged Out: #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ... and another rant!

Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

I have to say this: What's changed? True- this is not the library of my childhood. That's a good thing; my public library was a bookmobile. But- in a way- what we do these days is to get the "goods" of the library to the people we serve like the bookmobile did. We've found different ways to do it. In many cases, just as we've had to adapt to changing economic conditions, to "do more with less" (a phrase that is due a rant in itself), so changing technological conditions are another part of the evolution in services. It's not like we upgraded suddenly into a Library 2.0 revolution. In my view, the concepts described in all the Library 2.0 are just evolutionary blips on the greater library/librarianship continuum.

And now- my somewhat-connected rant: This training has not provided a smooth journey of discovery. What the creator of this training -and all those who appropriated it- failed to realise is that -verily- the Internet is an inconstant creature. You can't build a set-it and forget-it course around it. Sites -even those that look rock-solid- disappear. Sometimes, you can find the information elsewhere on the Web but -often- the whole shebang is gone-baby-gone. Those rock-solid sites with well-written information don't change as the technology changes. So newbies to the former next-big-thing site find that they can't understand what the Internet Sage is talking about in his or her beginner's guide because the next-big-thing site has morphed in the meantime and changed the site around, renamed buttons, eliminated buttons, and -now- it's changed so much that the guide is no longer useful.

The appalling thing- from a training standpoint- is that this is the nature of the beast and that any training based on this beast has a built in redundancy factor. It makes exploring and attempting to work with the Internet both aggravating and exciting. The job of an Internet tour guide has become one where the seasoned fearless leader encounters detours, dead ends, and dragons that weren't there when they last took the journey-- even if that journey only took place a month or a week before. Before you sit back and say- "Whew! I'm glad that's not my job." , I remind you that, dear heart, it is. As library workers at any level, we guide travellers through the Internet maze on a daily basis. Everyone- parents, students, teachers, government leaders, business people, et al - needs to have more than a working knowledge of the Internet. Surfing the Internet has gone from a pleasurable pastime to a tool we use everyday. While the library profession and the view of the public formerly portrayed librarians as being professional know-it-alls, experts in the field, and founts of all knowledge, with the Internet, the best we can realistically hope for is to be knowledgeable guides. We can help customers avoid pitfalls and steer them in the right direction. Instead of being the sages on the mountain-tops that seekers of wisdom consult, we become fellow travellers on the journey with them. I think that change is an improvement in our relationship to our customers.

Tag-a-logging: Exercise #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

And the Exercise says: Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?

Okay, folks. A pet peeve that is growing larger as I go through this course. The language in this training doesn't match the language in the source we're directed to. It's no one's fault. Change is the order of the day. It's unsettling as it is inevitable. It does, however, make it difficult for a newbie to follow along and complete this training. I wonder if we'll lose a lot of people along the way just because they couldn't figure out what the training was asking them to do in the exercises.

I clicked on the Advanced Search on Technorati when working on these exercises. I did a Tag search for Learning 2.0. A tag search got me 1,026 hits. A URL search got me 860 hits. If you put it in quotes- "Learning 2.0", you get 241 hits. TO put in quotes or not to put in quotes? Dispensing with the punctuation always gets more hits:
Keyword Seach: with " : 8743 Without " : 8745
Phrase Search: with " : 0!!! Without " : 464
I'll bet most people don't use the quotes when searching for something on this site. I tried it with Interlibrary Loan. 266 with, 499 without.

Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?

It's interesting to see what others are find noteable and valuable on the Web. I found some sites that I added to my del.icio.us listings. I really wasn't surprised to see that Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams was in the top spot for YouTubes faves.

I've been tagging since the beginning of my blogging without knowing why. It must be that old cataloging class making its mark on me. I claimed this blog and another in Technocrati. I'm holding off on doing the watchlist for now. It would truly amaze me if anyone thought that any of my blog posts were noteworthy.