Having read a little about 2.0 Library Futures, I'd like to mention an OCLC Newsletter article written by Tom Storey that contains a nice step-by-step screencast. This really appeals to my learning style, because it employs visual, auditory AND kinesthetic styles. There really should be more of this kind of tutorial out there. If there were, we would all be zipping through this learning experience. The source is the Santa Monica Library's link to help locate alternate sources for Library items people want. This example shows exactly the process a patron needs to search "all area libraries" for an item in Open Worldcat.
Other 2.0 related articles mention such concepts as shared cyber workspaces, collaboration, connectivity, speed and barrier removal. Such barriers as place, time, and expertise are mentioned, but I don't recall "economic advantage."
Another OCLC article by Wendy Schultz takes readers through multiple generations of possible Library Technology toward a future she describes like part 19th Century Salon, part Zen-like retreat and part health spa; all in a 3-D virtual reality. I reminds me of those fictional cloud-cities in tales where the privileged live lives of intellectual inquiry while the many less-lucky below toil with day to day realities.
This SF Chronicle story from 2000 belongs in the discussion (because I love it) and because I hope the future of technology in libraries doesn't lose sight of this enduring vision. How is the still-present digital divide being addressed? Even among the participants in this learning adventure, there is wide variation in experience, fluency, ease of use, etc. I hope there will always be steps from the low-tech world that remain encouraging, free of intimidation, elitism and a dismissive attitude.
I'm currently reading The Design of Future Things (see my Librarything) but reviews tell me this book (Everyware) is better at conversing about how we will understand ubiquitous computing in the future. I'm finding this part of the discussion interesting: not so much the content that becomes available to people via 2.0 technologies, but how people feel and think about them, interact and are changed by them, and what it really means.
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