In my opinion, Library 2.0 is the current direction that libraries should be taking. We just need to realize that today is a time of constant evolution, so we shouldn't get too comfortable. Tomorrow will bring new resources and learning challenges. I think that the most challenging part is the ever changing role of the library and the librarian. Librarians can no longer rest on past learning, we must be constantly educating ourselves in order to educate our patrons. Over the years some have forecast the end of libraries as we know them. I think that belief is both true and false. There will always be a need for libraries to provide good easy and fiction books for readers. Contrary to what some will argue, there will always be a segment of the population that just loves the feel and smell of a book and will refuse to curl up with a good computer. As for the reference section of a library----much of that will need to go. It is impossible to supply in a library the information that is available on the web. Our job as librarians is instruction on accessing this information and learning to differentiate between good solid information and the unfortunate junk that is also available on the web.
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Libraries have certainly changed since I graduated from library school, and they keep on changing! I was listening to an NPR CD today. I think it was called Lost and Found Sound. It was a collection of some unique "conversations" on obsolete sound recordings that listeners had found in their attics, cellars, etc. NPR took a selection to a person who restores these so that we can listen to them now. There was a conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Scott Carpenter, who was way down in the ocean at the time. Because of the helium? he sounded like a cartoon character! :)
There were touching stories of recordings made on paper and all sorts of other media. It made me think that because all of this technology becomes obsolete, it is good to still have a print option so we can at least READ the information!
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