Library 2.0 in Practice

Library 2.0 lays out an ambitious agenda for libraries and librarians, but changes at the library level are contingent on local expertise within the library as well as institutional and financial support. While some projects require considerable support, others are relatively simple to launch. We will look at a few examples of how libraries are, or are considering, implementing 2.0 technologies at the library level. But first it is worthwhile to discuss the idea of radical trust, an idea that underpins not only the adoption of the technologies we are about to examine but also how the 2.0 library is manifest in the physical realm of the library.

Tim O'Reily uses the term radical trust to describe the outlook that makes Wikipedia so successful (O'Reilly, T., 2005). Essentially, we can trust users to be our collaborators and the result will ultimately be positive. John Blyberg has applied the notion of radical trust to the library. He argues that the concept of radical trust should extend right into the library's mission statement and suggests that librarians must let go of the catalog and allow users to tag entries with their own terms (Blyberg, J., 2006). And, in her presentation titled, "What is Library 2.0?" Katheryn Greenhill further extends the notion of radical trust to the activities of users in the physical libraries. She asserts that restrictive policies such as as those that ban cell phone use or disable USB ports on computer terminals are fundamentally flawed as they prevent the user from fully taking advantage of all the library has to offer (Greenhill, K., 2007). Libraries must take risks and make changes for the benefit of the user.