Activity Four

ACTIVITY Four

Based on your reading in Modules 1, 2 and 3 so far, and your examination of the definitions of Librarian 2.0 and the views presented in the above YouTube clips, define what you believe to be the essential knowledge, skills and attributes of an information professional in a Web 2.0 world.

Write up your definition as a post (of no more than 350 words) in your OLJ.

Librarian 2.0 is a librarian has two main facets. One to be aware of new and upcoming technologies and to be aware of what current library users want and linking technologies and technology training to meet these needs. Librarian 2.0 is also about looking forward and thinking about the future of your library and it's place in the community it serves and responsive to changes in that community. 

The second facet is about creating services to meet these needs and providing services that allow collaboration and the creation of collaborative content between library staff and their users. I good example of this is an open library catalogue that allows users to review library materials and comment on other users reviews. The catalogue also should have the feature of allowing users to create accounts and create their own alerts and lists in relation to library materials. A tool like this also allows collaboration and sharing between users, helping to build an online library community. This library community can be further enhanced by the library creating Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram accounts where users can interact with the library and librarians online. However, simply having these accounts with no real strategy doesn't create library 2.0 or make you a librarian 2.0. What differentiates a librarian 2.0 is that he or she uses all these tools in a strategic way with a specific goal in mind. 

The essential knowledge skills and attributes of a IP in the web 2.0 world are curiosity, critical thinking and evaluative skills, open to new ideas, strategic, responsive and aware of the needs of their clients and it's important to actually have technical skills and understanding. Basic website editing skills, and an understanding of new library technologies like RFID as well as SQL and the ability to run and analyse basic statistics. 

It's interesting in the YouTube clips to see some older librarians claiming they have no idea what Librarian 2.0 is. I think that these librarians most likely engage in Librarian 2.0 practices or they are at least aware of some of them, but perhaps are not aware that these practices make up the definition of librarian 2.0. The clips also asked about Librarian Training 2.0. I think that this unit has done well to achieve some aspects of teaching 2.0 with use of our Facebook page and live chats, as well as the forums.