Assignment X: Library 2.0

For this first assignment, I wanted to focus on Library 2.0 and what it means for me as an emerging information professional. In Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service, Library 2.0 is defined by two criteria: it is “a model for constant and purposeful change,” and it “empowers library users through participatory, user driven services.” Through these two things, Library 2.0’s aim is both to improve service to current library users, as well as doing outreach to potential new library users (Casey & Savastinuk, 2007).

While reading up on Library 2.0 over the past couple of weeks, I was also remembering a different course I took that referenced Library 3.0 a fair amount. I wasn’t super clear on what that referred to or what the differences between the two are, so I did some digging and read that Library 3.0 is the complement to Web 3.0 . An article on TechTarget.com characterizes Web 3.0 as being primarily about linked data, while Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 are about linked apps and linked webpages, respectively (Lawton, 2023). I understood this to mean that Web 3.0 is in a lot of ways the natural progression of what we think of as “the web” today. To me, Web 3.0 (and by extension Library 3.0) is another kind of hyperlink; it’s an extension of how the Internet connects and stores data, and how we as users interact and connect with that data ourselves.

Library 2.0 and 3.0, and indeed in this entire course, especially caught my attention because of something someone told me right before I started this program. I ran into a former colleague who had taught at the same East Oakland high school as me, and told her that I had also left the school and that I was interested in librarianship. She responded by saying that she thought libraries were kind of a thing of the past. I was totally floored! Even before I started this program and was not yet thinking really deeply about any of these topics, I knew that was a ridiculous notion. I just couldn’t believe that someone, let alone an educator who herself also has small children, could be so out of touch with what libraries have to offer. Conversations like these are a big part of why the “constant and purposeful change” brought on by Library 2.0 feels so important to me.