Exploration 9 - What's Next and Looking Back

I did it!!! What a great trip this has been! I think what surprised me most is that although I don't use a lot of these tools, I was more familiar with them than I thought. I also learned about some new tools. The first-hand experience has helped me to better understand the tools, their benefits, their challenges, how patrons may be using them and how our library system could use them with staff or patrons.

I am kicking myself for not having started this earlier. Although I still got a lot out of it, if I had spread the assignments out over a longer period of time, I would have had a better opportunity to absorb each one. But procrastination is one of my biggest faults...

If I had to give a brief report, I would have three main points to make:

1. Web 2.0 allows us to go where our patrons are...easily and for a relatively low cost (yes, I acknowledge that time is a cost). We (libraries) really need to show that we are part of the Web 2.0 culture if we are truly going to be seen as relevant in the online world.

2. Web 2.0 provides many opportunities for marketing libraries and our services, as well as providing new services or reinventing services. This also means we may need to de-centralize the distribution of the marketing message.

3. Moving quickly is not necessarily something we tend to do, so we will have to learn to be more fluid if we really would like to use Web 2.0 tools to our benefit.

As for feedback on the project. I think it was a great assignment for staff to complete. It was very informative (for people who are unfamiliar with the tools), not too overwhelming and the provided guidance helped me really think about library uses for the tools. Most importantly, it gave me the opportunity to explore and permission to really try things out. Based on my experience, I will say that the parts of the assignment where you are supposed to interact with others who are working on the explorations is challenging when there are so few people working on the same segments. If the expectation is that all new staff complete these explorations, then this may be something to keep in mind.

I do hope to continue on with some of these tools, both in my professional and personal life. And I will certainly be more interested in exploring new tools as they come along. I also hope to see our library system continue to explore Web 2.0 tools for staff use and for use with patrons. So, I say let's get moving! Web 2.0 tools are constantly changing. While doing the assignments I noticed some things that were incorrect because something had changed. So we need to get started, before everyone else moves on to the next big tools!

Now that the assignment is done, I will likely retire the blog. However, I hope to meet people elsewhere in Web 2.0 land as I continue my own explorations!