Library 2.0 and Beyond

Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow’s User, edited by Nancy Courtney Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. $45 (pbk). 152p.. ISBN 1-59158-537-6

There is a certain irony in publishing a book about so-called “Library 2.0”. Replete with URLs, the inability of the printed work to hotlink to the resources it cites reinforces the importance of the topic. The editor and contributors are avowed enthusiasts for the tools they describe and they display a general and commendable clarity and positivism in their writing. There does appear to have been some rather more rigorous editorial management than is usually seen in such compilations, which brings a most welcome consistency of approach from a diverse set of authors.

As well as a background chapter there are ten chapters on specific applications or technologies. The future of catalogues, blogging, podcasting, wikis, MySpace, social bookmarking, gaming, mashups, folksonomies are all covered with patient expositions for the uninitiated. Chapters are written by different authors who have knowledge and experience of their particular topics. Each provides background information, describes the technology and or tools, gives practical applications on how to us them, describes how they have used them, and offers advice on relevance and potential uses for the reader as well as useful guidance on further reading or websites. This is very well done.

This is an excellent primer for the technically bewildered and is set at a price which, unusually these days, makes it safe to recommend it for individual as well as library purchase. But in such a slim volume there is little room for more than basic descriptive material. As a result there is a whiff of technological determinism about the approach, with no real attempt at exposition on why Web 2.0 may mark a fundamental discontinuity in society and not simply another turn of the screw of new toys for librarians to play with in the never ending search for relevance. Although this is mentioned in Courtney’s good introductory overview - and indeed implied in the subtitle - the theoretical underpinning is not really explored in any depth. It is simply assumed that these are good and useful things to which busy librarians need a gentle introduction.

The book is an undoubted success in its own terms and is well worth spending time on, but to strain a metaphor it gives excellent advice on how to refurbish the woodshed rather than exploring whether something really nasty lurks inside.