#14 Library 2.0 Wow.

I'm blown away by the articles I've just finished reading on meeting the ever changing needs of library users in our ever changing world. And what's more, I'm filled with guilt. I'm pretty 1.0 in how I meet my patron's needs, with the exception of the online library catalog. And that was not my doing! (Thankfully, I might add!) And yet, as a patron myself, I'm very 2.0: I dread the thought of walking into a library and asking a person for help, and then of all the antiquated, out-of-my-control ideas, that institution is going to make me bring that book back in two weeks! For Pete's sakes! I want to keep it for however long it's going to take me to read it -- and what if I need to access it later? Better still, I just want to download it from home. I don't want to leave my comfy couch, by golly. I want to listen to that book on my Ipod. Or read it on my computer screen. I want to leave my options open. Maybe have an online discussion about it in a chat room with other book lovers, or blog about it.

So . . . how can I become the kind of librarian I strive to have serve me? And still work within the confines of an elementary school? I think first of all it begins with always questioning myself. Am I serving my students the way they want to be served? Second, I need to question them. Third, I need to stretch them the same way that I'm being stretched right now -- this assignment (23 Things) has so expanded my small techno world into a much bigger world of possibilities. Now I'm looking for ways to get my students blogging, thinking about how I can do this in a practical sense (do they need an account? can I do that? could they piggyback onto an account I set up?), wondering about how they can be served by technology in my library. This won't be stretching to some, just extending what they see parents or siblings do. But to the majority, it will be leading them toward a new use of the computers they usually play games on. And after blogging, maybe podcasting. Who knows where it could lead?