Library 2.0 with Librarian 1.0?

Rochelle reflects a lot of my feelings about the Library 2.0 Future-is-Now vibe. I get it, I grok it, I want more of it. However, it’s a slow sell some places and a tough slow sell in other places. I spend a lot of time just trying to drop 2.0 words into conversations I have with the librarians on my route just so they’ll have some familiarity with them when they make their technology plans, or when the local wireless salesman knocks on their door. Even thinking about some of Michael’s great suggestions for an “easy” 2.0 upgrade requires paradigm shifts in the way many of the librarians I work with were trained to think. Does this mean it’s impossible? Surely not. Does it mean that baby steps may be in order, or more groundwork needs to be laid? Absolutely.

Folks who know me know I’m not a naysayer, but talking about sending a librarian to a Gaming Symposium when staff do not get time off, funding, or even dues reimbursement for ALA or even VLA is somewhat more optimistic and futuristic than it may seem from an urban or suburban library system perspective. When change happens, it will happen fast, no doubt about it, and it will be useful to have people alread “on the ground” to greet it when it arrives, but let’s work on the all boats part of the “rising tide lifts all boats” aphorism and make sure we’re not all heading to 2.0 when some of us are still in 0.98 beta.