Week 2

Last week ran away from me and I find myself not actually writing my second (and first official) blog post until now.

I'm loving the Learning 2.0 program so far, but what I am loving most is how much people I work with are talking about it, how much it is raising awareness of opportunities to integrate online interaction into what we already do. What I am learning (and what the people around me seem to be learning) is that there are implications beyond this Learning program for libraries that we are just starting to see.

I am hoping to learn through the program exactly how Web 2.0 ready my library is. I can see how we could use a lot of the tools that Web 2.0 offers to connect with library customers and our community, but what I don't actually know is how capable our set up is.

I think it will take a bit of strategic planning - a vision for the best ways that we can use this technology to connect with our particular community, and than an action plan for how we can make this happen.

Things that I think would work for our community include:

A library flickr page that promotes our library activities and programs, but that also celebrates the local community, its cultures and a sense of place.

workshops for the local community. I would love to run a flickr workshop, but would also love to team up with an organisation like ICE (Information and Cultural Exchange) to run a workshop for the young afghan community on blogging (now that Blogger lets you blog in Persian!)

A community events/cultural events blog with a library focus. The library I work for is a community hub, and I think it would be great to be able to promote all the wonderful activities and programs that other organisations run, as well as the library offerings. I think that this approach might attract a wider readership than just a straight library blog.

That's all my thoughts for now.

Readers Advisory suggestion for this week: Bellwether by Connie Willis (because it has some nice library moments and is all about trends and fads).