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Fresh Thoughts on Web/Library 2.0 By Rob Cullin You need to blog. You need to
Wiki. You need a Facebook/MySpace account. You need
to get into Second Life. Haven’t we all heard enough
of this in the last year or so? When we can barely find the time to do the
work we already have, how can we find the
time to do these “new” things, and why should you even care? Maybe we should all start spending
less time on the “cool tools” and more time on listening to what our
customers (current
and potential) really want and need. Making the library better and easier to
use should be our first priority. How we attract more people to use the
library should then be the second priority since it won’t help as much to
attract new customers if your “product” isn’t as good as it can be. Plus, if
your library is great and meets the needs of your customers and community,
some of the challenge of attracting more customers will take care of itself. Our real intent should be focused
on making our library’s environment (physical spaces, cyberspaces and, most importantly, person-to-person
interaction) participatory, collaborative and community/customer driven. It should be more about what our
communities want, and less about what we – librarians, staff and trustees –
think our community needs. Or, worse yet,
what we personally prefer. If you can shed the shackles of
legacy thinking and be open to what your whole community is looking for,
you’ll often find that what they want is different from what you are
providing. If you then work to tailor your library’s services, attitudes and
offerings to meet those desires, you’ll eventually elevate your library’s
stature within the community.
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