Some cunning person with great PR skills thought up the name “Library 2.0″ to bring librarians’ attention to all the new tools associated with the Web. Librarians have long followed the basic principles behind Library 2.0 – sharing, collaboration and community involvement. Union catalogues, recommended author lists, interlibrary loan, book circles, children’s hour and cooperative archives are just a few of the ways in which libraries have long supported those principles.
Of course, the thing about Library 2.0 is that the focus is now on Webbish ways of sharing, collaborating and involving the community. Which doesn’t mean that the old is no longer relevant, but there are more tools and more ways to involve more people in more cooperative efforts.
Some Library 2.0 tools do indeed enhance the basic library functions of storing, retrieving and disseminating information. Immediately jumping to mind are tagging, rating and reviewing tools. A little more thought yields outreach tools like blogs and wikis. But there are a few so-called Library 2.0 tools that really make me cringe – MySpace, Second Life, gaming and even FaceBook, despite the fact that I was reasonably positive about it the other day. Libraries don’t have to be all things to all people. We don’t have to be in every part of our clients’ lives. We don’t have to play games to prove we’re professionals, nor do we have to dumb ourselves down to the lowest common denominator, as some of those tools imply, and as even some of the librarians I highly respect imply.
We need to choose our Library 2.0 tools carefully and not just jump on the latest bandwagon. We could well end up with mud on our face if we don’t carefully consider the benefits and possible costs of specific tools.
November 4, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I’d like more detail about how gaming dumbs “ourselves down to the lowest common denominator.” (That’s an honest question, not a challenge.)
We can gain the same kinds of benefits from gaming that we do for storytime, book clubs, chess clubs, and the like, none of which I would consider “dumbing down” or “lowest common denominator.”
November 5, 2007 at 6:46 pm
G’day Jenny, it is quite a treat to have you visit my little corner of the world and actually comment on a post!
To answer your question, I have no problems with some forms of “gaming in libraries”. I don’t bat an eyelid at libraries which offer video games for loan; it is no different really, than loaning DVDs or audio books. I recognise that people have different learning styles, and that libraries may choose to accommodate this in various ways, such as including educational video games in their collection, and even perhaps creating tutorials in the form of video games. I know that there are valuable skills to be learnt from gaming itself; I recognise that pilots and astronauts and other highly qualified professionals rely heavily on simulations (a.k.a. video games?) as part of their training. I even accept that allowing patrons to try video games on the library’s computers before borrowing is a worthwhile objective.
What I do have issues with is libraries getting involved in things for pure entertainment purposes, just for the sake of improving their patronage stats, and in some vague hope that once patrons are in the library, they’ll take a look at what else the library offers. That, to me, is dumbing down the role of the library and focusing on the lowest common denominator. That includes libraries encouraging their patrons to play video games at the library for the sake of playing video games; libraries offering karaoke or dance nights; libraries offering free monthly dinners and movies. I can do all that with my girlfriends, if I’m so minded. (And to answer the question – “what about those poor souls with no girlfriends”, I reiterate – the library doesn’t have to be all things to all people).
It may be a lofty ideal that libraries are all about the storage, retrieval and dissemination of information; but that, ultimately, is our business, and we should focus on that in our million myriad ways. I just don’t see how entertainment as entertainment – which is what I see the above as – furthers that objective.
December 2, 2007 at 6:18 am
I’ve been offline for a while, so sorry for the late response. I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t understand how things like fiction, storytime, craft programs, adult programs, etc. aren’t also entertainment. Are you also against patrons surfing the internet without a specific task at hand at the library?
(And again, I’m not being snarky, but rather trying to figure out where your bias comes into play.)
December 3, 2007 at 8:56 am
G’day Jenny, I don’t think there is a clearcut line between what’s entertainment and what’s educational. And anybody who tries to draw that line is heading for a tangled web, so I’m not going down that path. But I don’t think many people would seriously consider it a fundamental role of libraries to offer, say, dating services, karaoke or sewing classes. Some libraries do extend their role beyond strict info storage, retrieval and dissemination. This may be OK to some extent, but I think we should be careful going too far down that path.
I get a sense sometimes that some librarians are panicking – with all the hoo haa about Google and the Internet and how students prefer Google to searching library catalogues etc, they’re afraid that libraries are becoming irrelevant in the Internet age and are trying to rebadge themselves by branching out into “hip” new things like gaming.
December 12, 2007 at 10:58 am
Alternatively, maybe it’s not panic so much as fulfilling the “community” role that many libraries include in their mission statements. The public library is the last safe, non-commercial space left in a community (especially for kids), so for me personally, it’s also about creating spaces where people come together and socialize around information and even entertainment in that type of space. For me, that includes video games. For me, it’s about being more relevant than ever and truly fulfilling our roles, not panicking over becoming irrelevant.
Thanks – interesting discussion.
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