Despite those little hairs on the back of my neck instinctively rising whenever someone uses the term zeitgeist, I feel Anderson is spot on regarding several points. In particular..."We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, .... if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons." To quote a wise colleague-if you can't remember it, it's too long. (Doesn't bode well for my posts, does it?:) )The fact that our circulation figures do not mirror those of his institution, suggests that our approach to collections is already steered by our users.
To me Library 2.0 means meeting users where they are, whether physically or virtually and at their level of need. Sounds much like Ranganathan's laws. We must be aware of the needs and impact of our savvy virtual users. Over 30,000 physical users visit our Central location alone each month; many of them are here for our welcoming community spaces, our collections, and our assistance. We need to keep in mind both the needs of those ready to dig into delicious, and those who don't know that a cursor is not just someone who uses bad words.
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