Librarian 2.0 – I fully embrace this term. I believe it is the way of the future and I think all Libraries need to get on the 2.0 train.
In the past libraries didn’t market themselves, then with all the alternative avenues for obtaining information opening up they had to. Then came web 2.0 and they began using web 2.0 technologies to connect with their clients. However, in some cases (such as the Library I work for) the Librarians do not do the work with the web 2.0 technologies. A marketing or liaison officer is behind the curtain rather than a Librarian. To me this is NOT Librarian 2.0, clients are expecting to connect and interact with Librarians on the Facebook or Twitter feed not a promotions person. This is also not encouraging Librarians to go inside a technological cocoon and emerge a Librarian 2.0 butterfly.
Librarians need to immerse themselves in this ever expanding web 2.0 world and be a part of it, there should not be a middle man between Librarian’s and their patrons.
What I believe Librarian 2.0 should have – the basics:
- A working knowledge of a significant range of social networking tools
- A passion to investigate how different social networking tools could be effectively harnessed by the library (Harvey, 2009).
- The ability to accept change whether small, big or ongoing as this is the future environment of Libraries, forever evolving.
- Passion, dedication and interest in continuing professional development.
- A “guru of the information age” (Abram, 2012).
I believe we are the gatekeepers of information. There is scope in the future for Librarian’s to aid clients to develop their RSS feeds to locate information surrounding their topics of interest rather than aid them finding online journal articles or physical items. I believe information literacy classes will soon include social networking technologies and personal learning networks. I feel that a Librarian’s function or role will have to be much more flexible, Librarian’s will need to be more multi-skilled than ever before.
References
Abram, S. (2012). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World. Retrieved from http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000505688.cfm/ on 8 August, 2012.
Harvey, M. (2009). What does it mean to be a Science Librarian 2.0? Retrieved from http://www.istl.org/09-summer/article2.html on 8 August, 2012.
Ditch the Bun 
August 10th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Very thought provoking, I agree with much of this. Very well constructed and you have covered the topic well. Thanks for adding your thoughts to this topic.
October 10th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Excited to announce that this post was Scooped also by the abover commenter http://www.scoop.it/t/2-0-tech-tools-for-ed/p/2372003227/what-is-a-librarian-in-a-web-2-0-world-ditchthebun.