We have definitely gone through a mind set change in the last 5 years in terms of how we offer our services. We have done a great deal to provide services as the public wishes to use them with 24/7 reference, personal contact through chat, providing free Internet access, shifting from print to electronic resources and offering a variety of downloading options, etc. Personally, I am looking forward to the new program booking service and hope that we can soon get a new meeting room booking service.
The Article on Icebergs was thought provoking in that it explained ways in which librarians can defeat themselves with "sacred" ideas that no longer work with the new technology. However, the new technology really opens up the way information can be accessed, shared, and manipulated. I look forward to the GALE group learning to use Web. 2.0 to better access their tremendous data. They have such a wonderful resource that is still indexed as if it were a print source. It is better in that one no longer has to use a decimal index, but its subject headings are clunky.
The NC State Catalog was very interesting. I could get this weeks new titles. Boy, would our customers love that. Once I got to my data set, there were options to further search by clusters: gene, format, region, topic, etc. Each cluster was accompanied by its number of related hits. There was tremendous searching variety but it was arranged very logically and was easy to use.
I would love to see a book avatar. I had fun with the librarian avatar--Ms. Dewey: http://msdewey.com/
It is interesting to read about the future enhancements. I am looking forward to Library 4.0 and the knowledge spa. However I think I would prefer a real spa to a virtual one. You cannot beat the tactile experience.
The Jan/Feb. issue of Public Libraries is the Reference Issue. It also contains some interesting articles on the future of Ref. service. I especially liked the article called "Reference on the Edge" on page 21. A Michigan library is using touchpad LCD screens, tablet PCs, VoIP, Aim, and SSLDL wireless hot spots.
It is an exciting time to be a librarian. My daughter is glad that I am learning these new social networking sites.
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