Library 2.0: Thing 15

What I see from the whole Library 2.0 thing is a major shift in attitude for libraries. The old attitude seemed to be one of exclusion. Yes, we have these wonderful things here, but we really don't want you to get your grubby little hands on them. And before you walk out the door with one of our precious items, you must prove your identity, give a vial of blood, and promise your first born child. The obvious reason for this attitude is the fact that so many people have taken advantage of library resources and made off with our books or cds or whatever. If the future of libraries is that every thing is available online, there won't be anything to make off with. Therefore, we can loosen our grip a little and welcome folks on in, as it were.

I'm pretty excited about Open Worldcat. My husband and I use it a bunch.

I think the Tulsa library system is really making progress at the library 2.0 thing. The myspace page, the blog, etc. I think we could make our online catalog a little more user friendly. Especially at the My Account level and the Reserving of books. For example, when a patron looks at her account and sees that a book she's requested is Available (meaning it is on a shelf at it's owning location) and the pickup location of Broken Arrow, she thinks that it is available at the Broken Arrow library and drives over to find it. Then she is upset because it isn't there. The website is a bit confusing on this point.