As part of "23Things on a Stick", I recently read John Blyberg's explanation of L2. I have to admit that much of what he says is true, and happening whether we like it or not. Yet...
It was interesting to go back to the 23 Things blog and find that the OTHER LINKS DID NOT WORK. My own institution the, Monolithic Historical Society, has had some recent, happy experiences with failed internet connections, slow connections, and magically disappearing email. While those of you out there explore the "23 Things" please keep in mind that there are other perspectives. For instance the Annoyed Librarian or AL as she/he is known (I actually think that AL might be a guy named Al from Sheboygan...) You can find the Annoyed Libraian's persepective on 2.0 at: http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/08/cult-of-twopointopia.html If nothing else, AL's term "twopointopians" is apt, and a good description of the breathless enthusiasm, somtimes verging on religious fevor, emanating from folks like Mr. Blyberg.
There are two concerns I would like to raise about L2 . The first is "magical thinking". Not so much "magical thinking" from harmless drudges like reference librarians, but magical thinking from more dangerous folks, like Library Administrators. There seems to be a notion that all of these blogs, wiki's, databases etc. will magically appear from the staff in their "spare time". Right. Now we here at the Monolithic Historical Society (Mono for short) are dedicated to putting all sorts of stuff on line but so far, only bits and pieces of our collections are actually there. It's interesting to note, that when researchers get in their little cars and motor over here they are amazed to discover all of the great stuff we have in our collections. For example, we have a truly marvelous collection of newspaper microfilms from a Major Midwest State (at least WE think it's major) a number of which would be terrific candidates for scanning and indexing. But this is an expensive process requiring a systematic dedication of funds so: Mono has no budget for it... Grants will magically appear...the staff will write them. In all fairness to Mono and its harried administrators, we are not the only institution suffering from this delusion.
My other concern is...we are at their mercy. They are vendors. I could really go on and on about this topic but will spare you, dear reader. In case you haven't noticed, the providers of almost everything that is major to 2.0: Opacs, newspapers databases, genealogy sources (ancestry.com) etc. are steadily consolidating. These large corporations, contrary to Mr. Blyberg's assertion, are more interested in their bottom line than cooperating with libraries. They are taking larger and larger chunks of our acquisitions budgets. But then, silly me, we don't need to buy those books anymore. Do we? In my more cynical moments I wonder if there are any connections between the twopointopians and the venodors....nah. Who would do that? Shame on me for even bringing it up. Thanks for listening... I feel better now.
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