[Web4lib] Skills for Library 2.0 Leaders

[Ron Peterson]

I agree that we need to get people more comfortable with change, and that is not an easy task.  But, I'm not sure why you are resistant to basing your technology decisions on your user's needs/goals.  It seems that your example illustrates the value of that well.  First, the military commanders you mention have a goal of getting current news headlines which can be met using an RSS reader. The distance ed faculty have a goal of finding better, more current information, which can be met by creating a feed of this information.  Now, you just need to convince others at your institution that this has enough value for your users that your colleagues should put the effort into it.

I think you are conflating 2 different issues.  One that librarians should be learning about how their users are creating, finding, and using information.  The other that libraries should should be defining and implementing services based on meeting their users needs and goals.  That librarians should be taking risks and learning about new new technologies and how they impact their job.  And libraries need to be learning what their users' goals and needs are and finding better ways to meet them.  That may or may not involve blogs, wikis, or any other new technology.  Libraries should also be taking risks, but risk tolerance for the institution is going to be much lower, in most cases, than for the individual.

----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Costa <markrcosta at gmail.com>
To: dan at riverofdata.com
Cc: Web4lib at webjunction.org
Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2007 8:26:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Skills for Library 2.0 Leaders

It's well and good for a bunch of people who understand change and are
comfortable with it to talk about looking one step ahead, but the truth is
that a good portion of our profession is dominated by people who are a bit
resistant to change. Our next big challenge is not getting people to use
wikis, blogs, and tagging, but to understand that from now on, things will
be evolving faster than ever. We definitely need to streamline the time it
takes to move from introduction of a technology to adoption in our
profession. I've met 2 librarians in the past year that do not have web
presences for their libraries. How are we going to talk to them about next
generation web when they're not even first generation?



Will members of the community participate in library services and offer
feedback? I think yes. There are many sites that have demonstrated that they
can generate traffic by creating participatory environments. Will all users
contribute? No, of course not. 80% of the content will come from 20% of the
people; the rest will just drive on through. I think we need to start
focusing on who really uses the library; I'm talking about the people who
explore the resources and rely on it heavily for their research needs, not
the kids who have no desire to even do research. Focus on your dedicated
user base and create a great experience for them.



Someone said we should see what our users need before we adopt a new
technology. I say maybe, and here is why. Over the past year I have been
trying to get my library to experiment with RSS. I was unsuccessful because
no librarian could see an immediate purpose for this. I couldn't even get
another librarian to try it out and see what a difference it makes for
people who track the news. Less than a year later I had a chance encounter
with a student who, after graduation, is going on to command Guantanamo Bay.
We talked about ways he can easily track the news, particularly on GITMO. So
I showed him Google News search, the ability to create feeds from search
results, and Netvibes. He loved it. Not only that, but I was able to spread
the word and several other military librarians are setting up similar
services for their installation commanders. Simultaneously I have been
continuously sending emails to our distance ed faculty about new
technologies and sites that may be of interest. I've gotten a few of them
interested in RSS. So...if the library had a blog/feed, I could have easily
have set the readers up to catch our blog.



If any one of the librarians were proactive in creating a blog, just to see
what it was like, they would have had a chance to have an audience with the
most important person in their institutions hierarchy. It's a missed
opportunity and it speaks as to why libraries are falling out of favor. Many
librarians are reactive and take few risks, which creates missed
opportunities. We need to get people to understand that they have to take
risks, experiment with new technologies, and be afraid to fail.



mc



PS - For those of you who are risk takers, forward thinkers, and proactive
people, please don't think that this was about you :)
-- 
Mark R. Costa, MLS

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."
--- George Bernard Shaw
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