This is what I took away from Aaron Schmidt's talk. Community building is important to me and creating community online in my role as a public librarian reaffirms that value. How does a public librarian create community online in the Web 2.0 world, or as Aaron referred to it, the "read/write web"? (read/write refers to the fact that people create content as well as consume it)
He touched greatly on the usability factor of libraries Public Access Catalogs (OPAC). This is a dilemna that I remember from classes at the iSchool. Why is it that library catalogs are so user-unfriendly?! Why can't public libraries incorporate some of the white space ideas of Google, some of the search function of Amazon, etc. If we want the catalog to be the portal to the library I think it needs to become uncluttered. How? I don't know.
Feature people - this idea is as old as small town newspapers. Feature the people who use the library on the library website. Feature them prominately. One example he used was how Powell's bookstore features pics of people enjoying books at Powell's in their windows. Upload pictures of patrons on the website. (flickr) Upload digital video of library events. (youtube) Upload patron reviews of books into the public access catalog. (wiki/blog)
The capacity of technology is getting so fast, and small, and inexpensive, that soon there will be less of a digital divide and more of a participation divide. People will be able to afford to own technology but they won't necessarily know how to use it. It is the role of the public library to guide the community through the transition from print materials to digital materials. For citizens to be able to participate in the democratic society they will need to know how to participate in the online community.
He talked about gaming in libraries. How Nintendo's Wii video gaming system is played by seniors and teens. How gaming has the potential to develop collaboration and analyzing skills. A couple video games mentioned: Portal & World of War Craft. Further reading: Halo and Information Literacy, & Summit of Educational Games.
Suggested reading: "Everything Bad is Good: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter" by Steven Johnson.
Aaron Schmidt hails from the North Plains library in Oregon. He created the North Plains library website on Wordpress. His blog is called Walking Paper ( at www.walkingpaper.org).
I took all of these notes on a 3x3 inch piece of sticky notepaper.
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