This week I've been doing some research on "Library 2.0" - I'm presenting at a UKSG seminar called "Caught up in Web 2.0? Practical implementations and creative solutions for librarians and publishers" in November.

One of the better papers - or at least one which seems to have been well researched, and covers lots of interesting ground - is by a chap called Jack Maness and is called "Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries". It's a great introduction to what libraries are doing in the brave "new" world of Web 2.0, why they're doing it and what the particular challenges are. He doesn't unfortunately mention one of my favourite YouTube clips - an oldie but goodie: "Introducing the book" which I link to whenever given half a chance...

I've got a fair amount of experience of what the issues are facing museums in this space, and it's fascinating to spend some time looking at a parallel sector. Not only do the similarities come shining through, but I've found that looking at this from a different angle also sparks off some thinking which I haven't had before. It's refreshing to "know about Web 2.0" but to be naive about a particular application of the various technologies and techniques. My experience of libraries online has until recently been almost entirely limited to OPAC searches at university, which was a frighteningly long time ago, and the integration with Unicorn which we carried out as part of the NMSI Ingenious project.

So many of the challenges which we face as museums - challenges which I've frequently tried to articulate at various conferences - are echoed in the library world: What about authority? Can we cope with the resource implications? What does it cost? Why should we "do Web2.0"? What does the future hold?

Mr Maness does a great job in articulating the various approaches to Web2.0 in the library sector. I'd recommend reading the paper, especially if you're new to this sector. Here's a few choice snippets to tempt you..

"Library 2.0 is...communally innovative and rests on the foundation of libraries as a community service, but understands that as communities change, libraries must not only change with them, they must allow users to change the library..."

"Library 2.0 blurs the line between library and patron, creator and consumer, authority and novice"

He also focusses on the vital nature of the cross-over between physical and real - something which readers of my Electronic Museum blog know I bang on about a fair amount:

"Library 2.0 will show no distinction between or among formats and the point at which they may be accessed"

Once I've done my presentation at UKSG I'll of course post it to the web and link to it from here...