Web 2.0 Technologies

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,” Charles Dickens

I’m not against progress; ITunes has exposed me to music from all over the world. Products like Voicethread will create wonderful opportunities for our students to interact with other students around the globe. These Web 2.0 tools have been fun and many will be very useful. It’s an exciting time. You can get to know people from all around the world; even better than you know your own neighbor, sometimes. The Internet provides movie trivia, recipes, products, directions, phone numbers, weather radar, medical information (caution!) and much more. I read political blogs to keep up with Washington. When my computer is out, I’m at a loss. In my profession, the Internet has become indispensible. A large part of my library budget goes for databases, which the students and teachers use constantly. We’re starting to see ebooks become easily available and it’s great. Our library resources are available 24/7. “Integrating services and databases into the school curriculum is one of the keys to success,” says George Bishop of the Ovid-Elsie Schools. This is also one of our goals.
However, as I watch politicians’ use statistics to make their argument, numbers that the opposite side says are bogus, I worry that facts will become too elastic. Already, we depend on databases based on journal articles that are edited, proofread and, we hope, reviewed by peer experts. We librarians and teachers’ know better than to take a webpage at its’ word. Many students do not. Perfect example, Wikipedia; too many students are content to quote Wikipedia as a trusted news source even though we tell them over and over….this information can be changed at the drop of a hat. Then, there is the high school junior who quoted a fifth grader’s paper that was posted on the Internet. We must keep our eyes wide open as we go into this “brave new world.” When we “collect user intelligence” such as OCLC’s “pilot program that allows anyone using Open WorldCat to contribute and share tables of contents, notes and reviews,” I just think we’re going to have to be cautious. Who are these people? What is their expertise? Will we be able to teach our students to recognize bias?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHBPuHS-7s&feature=related (Epic 2014)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQDBhg60UNI (Epic 2015)

In conclusion, we have no need to worry whether our jobs are in jeopardy. I like Dr. Wendy Schultz’s thought “People will collect librarians rather than books.” Our job might extend past our career; we might be Internet librarians well into our 90’s and beyond! As others have said, this is an information explosion. And, while we librarians may or may not be able to use Dewey in the traditional sense to make it easily accessible, someone will have to help make sense of the huge amount of information. Why not librarians? Then, again, who am I? ;) What do I know? :P

Citations:
Bishop, George - http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/advocacy.htm
Nilges, Chip - http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/4.htm
Schultz, Wendy - http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm