The Web 2.0 challenge to the OPAC

The presentation I really wish I had attended at the ALA midwinter: Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0 by Casey Bisson of Plymouth State university. (Presentation in Flash)
This is the best summing up of both the challenges and opportunities the OPAC faces in the Web 2.0 world I have seen so far. My first reaction was really just WOW! This guy has really thought this through and then he goes on to show us that he can walk where he talk. I especially liked the way he shows how relevant information can be integrated into the search result page, and of course permalinks, trackback and comments. The way of Bisson is a good example of how Library 2.0 can contribute to both the development of libraries and a wonderful addition to the social web. The example shows how useful a catalog can be, and also how libraries must open up their reservoirs of content and led others use and mix the information we have created to their own needs and ends.

This is really to good to be true. I’m about to talk about the same topic on friday when I get to say my thing at the “Knowledge Organization Days” at the Oslo College dept. of Library and Information Studies. The topic is Should the library catalog meet the Google-challenge and if so, how? Since I’m probably the poorest cataloger in Norway there has to be another reason they asked me, and I think writing about Library 2.0 has something to do with it. Anyway, mr. Bissons presentation has made it easy for me to focus on what can be done and some of the questions that needs to be asked if we are to continue to make our main tool, the catalog, a relevant feature of the library in the future.
It’s about people, not technology

Found this thanks to Panlibus.

Filed under: Library 2.0, OPAC, Web 2.0

Another norwegian take on Library 2.0

Magnus Enger who just finished his Masters degree in documentation science have decided to start writing in english, and his first post on Library 2.0 is just facinating and provides a much needed perspective from a new and fresh viewpoint (information/documentation science).
I think his tentative conclusion is a great step forward in finding a fundamental starting point for the development of a coherent Library 2.0 philosophy:

My tentative conclusion then, is that Library 2.0 is all about librarians trying to come to terms with the changes that are evident all around us, and beginning to think about how our own documents (secondary and systemic), and the services connected with them, should and could adapt to the demands from, and opportunities offered by, the new environment surrounding us.

Thank you Magnus. Keep up the good work!

Filed under: Librarian 2.0, Library 2.0

What do I think Library 2.0 is?

This question popped up in my head after posting the last post about Cites & Insights. Where would I put myself in this conversation? I’ll try to sum up my loose threads of thought and see if anything comes out in a readable way.

1. I think Library 2.0 is a chance to look at library services, libraries in general and librarians with new eyes, or through new lenses. There will be loads of stuff thought of before, but hopefully put together with new stuff to become really new and original. We stand on the shoulders of gigants, but we still reach a little higher:-)

2. Library 2.0 is, to me, a ongoing discussion on tools, philosophy, communication and services, that imports more from our surroundings than is usual for a professional discussion in the library world.

3. I hope Library 2.0 will be the tool to enable librarians, patrons and library owners to cooperate on improving library services, and I DO think that libraries is too important to leave in the hands of only librarians. We need more input from our surroundings and I think that in the Library 2.0 discussion this is a central theme and that we can find some of the tools for this cooperation in both Web 2.0 and other sources outside the library world.

4. Technology is not the reason for Library 2.0, but it is a neccesary part.

I’ll stop now, go home, fetch my son from school and make a spagetti dinner. More tomorrow I think.

Filed under: Library 2.0

Cites & Insights on Library 2.0 and “Library 2.0″

Walt Crawfors Crawford (sorry Walt!) writes the widely read and usually interesting newsletter Cites & Insights. Where he in the latest issue (PDF)(Volume 6, number 2, 2006) tries to sum up and describe Library 2.0 as a phenomenon, based on quotations from bloggers and also critique the concept and the bandwagon “Library 2.0″ as he calls it. So far it is probably the most thorough treatment of the Library 2.0 conversation that is going on in the biblioblogosphere. Although I think it is a useful piece of work I do worry that the focus is too narrow. Maybe the time for such a summing up has not come. The conversation is new. Crawford seems to have about commented on almost all posts on the Library 2.0 discussion so far. If we say that this conversation is about 6-7 months old it certainly needs a little more time before we should start to dismiss it, or even say that we know what it is. Crawford has the time and energy to discuss and comment on the choice of individual words in several blogposts. He certainly has the right, but I must admit that I got a sinking feeling in my middle section thinking about how he would dissect this blog if he ever discovered it and not focus on the central ideas and memes that might be gathered from the posts and comments in the blog. And that is my main problem with Cites & Insights this time. It does not sum things up, does not do what I most like about Cites & Insights, find the central ideas and roll them out for the reader, easily accessible and digestible. This time I think we found a lot more Cites and less Insights than usual from Walt Crawford. I look forward to the continuing discussion on Library 2.0 and how we can improve library services to the library users/patrons with the ideas and concepts that we find in the open source movement, creative commons, web 2.0 and other sources which has not been available before. And I think that in the future there will be more worthwhile Cites & Insights from Walt Crawford also on this topic.
via Panlibus

Filed under: Librarian 2.0, Library 2.0, criticism

The state of Library 2.0 in Norway today

I just wanted to set a baseline for what I think is the state of Library 2.0 i Norway today. These are my thoughts and impressions. Please feel free to comment on anything you thing is missing, wrong or just plain stupid:-)
There are several interesting phenomena which should interest other Library 2.0 people. First and foremost there is the Norwegian Digital Library (Norsk Digitalt Bibliotek (NDB)), an office for digital library development at the central authority on archives, libraries and museums (ABM-utvikling) in Norway. Probably one of the boldest initiatives in recent norwegian library history. The program has severaly interesting projects going, among them the National Common Library Card. A project that is really Library 2.0, both in concept and execution. I really hope we can fill this card with a lot of exciting possibilities in the near future. The main problem for the NDB is the lack of funding from the central government. The program was promised several million norwegian kroner (about 1 million US$) to implement national digital library solutions and as seed money for local and regional projects. This has not happend so far, and the Archives, libraries and museums authority has used funds from its ordinary bugdet to fund the few projects that have seen the light of day so far. We remain hopeful for the new red/green government and the budget for 2007, but have been dissapointed for the last five years, so there is an expectation of dissapointment nested in the hope.

One library system vendor, Biblioteksystemer, has been quick off the mark when it comes to utilizing new web 2.0 develompments within its system Bibliofil. RSS feeds of several different categories and the use of AJAX to improve searchability is just two of the latest developments in a system that has constantly been in the forefront of new tricks. They openly support open source software and uses it in their system where appropriate. Hopefully a new dialogue between the four main library system vendors in Norway will lead to a better understanding of web 2.0 and what it can offer in increased capabilities for library systems in the future for all systems. The main challenge is of course to get the librarians who use the systems to demand the right capabilities for their system and their users. No little challenge there.

The Norwegian Library Association (Norsk Bibliotekforening (NBF)) has long been a fairly conservative institution in the Norwegian digital library landscape. Last year something happend though, and now it is in the forefront, with the establishment of a blog with RSS and some innovative uses of a wiki. NBF has long been a frontline fighter in freedom of expression and copyright debates here in Norway and internationally. There has been NBF representatives at the WTO and WIPO negiotiations and in the recent revision of the norwegian copyright act, NBF was very active and gained som important infuence on parts of the law that are vital to libraries and electronic publishing.

There is another development that I find extremely encouraging and altough it is small, I think it is a sign of something larger. For years the regional library authorities in Norway has published small newsletters on paper, recently electronically, with news and information for libraries within a region. Recently one of the best of these, Vestær’n went blog, and has not looked back since. I think that the new format fits the old newsletter like a glove and it looks as if more regional library authorities will follow the lead. This will again lead to a great spread of blog reading among librarians, and hopefully a greater adoption of this format by norwegian libraries. I remain hopeful!

With this baseline in mind I will try to write about Library 2.0 in a Scandinavian perspective and hopefully contribute to the development of the Library 2.0 concept with this viewpoint.

Filed under: Library 2.0, Norway, Scandinavia

Blogging in english

I have discovered over the last two months that blogging in Norwegian limits the number of readers and feedback, and participation in the general discussion on the subject that is on the top of my mind right now, Library 2.0. I have therefore decided to try blogging on this subject in english to see if I can participate and become a part of the Library 2.0 universe that seems to grow daily.

There are two main reasons for this, one is an interview I did with Michael Stephens for my podcast Bibliotek 2.0, in english, and I recieved moore feedback and responses on this podcast and the post on the podcast blog that on anything else I have written or podcast so far. This proved to me that there is a greater discussion that the one going on in Norway and the Scandinavian countries, and that it would be fun to participate in that discussion.

The second reason is the discussion recently on norwegian library e-mail lists on publishing in english or norwegian. I was a bit taken back by the provincialism and hostility from a lot of norwegian librarians to the thought of publishing in english and realized that this lack of acceptance of english as a professional language is one of the things that hold back norwegian librarianship. I rather want to be a part of the solution, not the problem. Therefore I have started publishing in english. Both for my norwegian fellow librarians, but also for a world-wide audience.

And lastly, sorry for all the mistakes in spelling and grammar in advance. I hope to have a lot of fun with this blog, so correct Queen’s english is not my top priority.

P.S. I’m not going to stop writing my norwegian library blog or stop podcasting in norwegian.

Filed under: Blogging, Language, Norway, Podcast, Scandinavia