Wow. Watching Stephen Abram and reading John Blyberg's blog on Library 2.0, both made me feel way behind the eight ball as well as really stupid. When I came to "The Ongoing Web Revolution" I was so grateful to find a well-written, non-presumptious elucidation on the topic that I am sorry to say figuring out who the author was is going to take more than just the few minutes I have before I need to go to bed. Unfortunately, I chose to post a few pertinent thoughts as a priority. I'm not sure I chose well.
Never mind the distractions disrupting Abram's video, the niggling question of the lack of an Australian accent and his obvious penchant for loving to hear himself use little-known vocabulary. He made some good points. At least I think he did. He was awfully sure of himself.
And never mind Blyberg's disregard for proper grammer and blithe disdain of spell-check as well as his presumption that his reader is going to know whatever acronym he tosses off. His closing sentence was so compellingly simplistic, ("It may not be the right label, but whatever IT is, it IS") that I had to forgive him.
The biggest question I can think of to ask now is, "What should a librarian be in the midst of all this?" Merrian Webster's definition of a librarian is, "A specialist in the care or management of a library." Seems to me that definition falls way short. It makes me think of someone who is tending a machine and ignoring the person who needs that machine to save his life.
Maybe my problem lies in the assumption I am making about the definition of a library. Let me check. Nope. Good old Merriam backs me up. It says, "a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale." This is where I would normally gloat about being correct in my assumption, but, sadly, I think Merriam and I are both missing something here.
Shouldn't libraries be places - real and/or virtual - which provide people the information and resources they need? Wouldn't that then make librarians people who help other people access, understand and use these resources and information? The role of collection caretaker, inherently understood, then takes a backseat to the role of enabler.
I'm not sure I've got a firm grasp on it yet. It bears thinking about quite a bit more. Perhaps Library 2.0 (and beyond) is the toolbox I can fish around in to become the enabler I envision.
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