Michael Stephen's essay, "Into a new world of librarianship" (http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm)Stephens proposes a Librarians 2.0 program that he believes can help information professionals better manage the changing needs of users who are finding their information needs being satisfied by the Internet. Librarians 2.0 is what he calls a “strategy guide” for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content.
Librarians 2.0 assumes that libraries can be a relevant social institution in a 24/7 Webcentric society if they offer technology, programs, and services that meet the needs of today's users.
If libraries are to remain relevant for their users, librarians must be in touch with what users want now and be in touch with trends that indicate what users's demands will be in the near future.
In essence, librarians must act and think like marketers of consumer products, always being on the lookout for new consumer targets.
Advertising Age has reviewed a new book, Karma Queens, Geek Gods, and Innerpreneurs by Ron Rentel and Joe Zellnik (McGraw Hill, 5/07). Rentel is the founder of Consumer Eyes, a New York-based marketing firm, which recently released its first collection of data on nine new types of consumers they call C-Types or "influencers."
"After culling thousands of brand insights -- S.C. Johnson & Son, Motorola, PepsiCo, and P&G are on its client roster -- using the consultancy's Consumer Immersion process, founder Ron Rentel and his team selected nine C-Types of true-to-life consumers who they believe should be on every marketer's radar. The resulting profiles may sound like stylized caricatures, but they're personas with tangible auto, wardrobe and mixed-media preferences, the company said. And while the book notes C-Types are not a "black box to success," Consumer Eyes hopes its research sparks creativity in marketing innovation. "
Advertising Age, July 23, 2007, http://adage.com/article?article_id=119415
For a more indepth understanding of the new C-Type consumer, go to: http://adage.com/images/random/0707/Consumers.pdf
Librarians 2.0 plans for their users - Make the library "transparent" by making your decisions and plans known in open forums and respond to comments. Ask your users what new technologies or new materials they need. Involve your users in the designing of new libraries.
Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools -Librarians must create new services born in a climate of collaboration. Build connections online where your users live.
Librarian 2.0 controls technolust - Technology is put to the test: Does it meet the users need in a new or improved way? Does it create a useful service for putting users together with the information and experience they seek?
Librarian 2.0 makes good, yet fast decisions - When redesigning your web site, keep in mind ease of use and user involvementcontent. Create content that can be easily added or reconfigured.
Librarian 2.0 is a trendspotter - Read outside the profession and watch for the impact of technology on users and spotting emerging trends in the business world.
Librarian 2.0 gets content - The future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content.
To a Temporary Place in Time (Dr. Wendy Schultz, Infinite Futures)
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm
Dr. Schultz defines the library in a Web 2.0 environment:
What are libraries? Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations, they are convocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange. Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories; they provide mentors not only for the exploration of stored memory, but also for the creation of new artifacts of memory. What was the library of the past? A symbol of a society that cared about its attainments, that treasured ideas, that looked ahead multiple generations. Librarians were stewards, trainers, intimate with the knowledge base and the minds who produced it. Librarians today are not just inventory management biobots: they are people with a unique understanding of the documents they compile and catalog, and the relationships among those documents.
The Future of Libraries & Library 4.0: Schultz thinks that libraries will serve an "aesthetic economy, the dream society, which will need libraries as mind gyms; libraries as idea labs; libraries as art salons." Merriam-Webster's defintion of aesthetics is: "responsive to or appreciative of what is pleasurable to the senses."
The library as aesthetic experience will have space for all the library’s incarnations: storage (archives, treasures); data retrieval (networks—reference rooms); and commentary and annotation (salon).
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