Thing 2: Why do I care about Web 2.0?

Well, really, how can you not care? Whether you love the idea or hate it you have to care. It's happening now whether we want it to or not. And as librarian, who should be disseminators of information, we have to know what's happening and we have to adapt. Those who are indifferent are the ones really in trouble.

How will I find the time to learn about Web 2.0? I'll make the time because right now I feel pretty ignorant about some of this stuff. And it's not a good feeling. I want to be relevant and to remain relevant I need to know. I'm new at my library but this has already begun here. 2.0 discussions are all around. Blogs, wikis, and discovery layers are daily events and it's becoming more and more expected that staff knows what's going on.

We need to make our libraries relevant to our users and more and more new technologies are what is relevant to them. We need to meet them in their space -- they're not always going to get up and come to us. We need to create a presence on their turf.

The down side of this for me was a comment in one of the articles about collections becoming obsolete. I for one would be sad to see actual books go away. Virtual books are fine but I'm a lover of the paper page. Perhaps I'm a relic in this way but it's an inherent part of who I am.

Thing 1 - Creating my blog

This is fun so far. I've heard about blogs, read blogs, wondered about blogs, but never really had the time to explore further into them. I'm back at work after spending the last 8 years at home with my kids (trust me that was harder work) and I feel like I've been living in a bubble and I'm pretty out of touch technologically speaking. So I'm hoping that this exercise will help get me up to speed.