# 14 - Musings on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Web 2.0 broadly describes the concept behind interactive web applications and Internet technologies such as blogs (rather than static websites), wikis, social-networking, open-source, file-sharing, and collaborative user-compiled search engines.

Due to the rapid evolution of the Internet and the increasingly powerful servers and web operating systems, users can do much more with the Internet than Google news articles. While most people would be hard pressed to write a succinct definition of "Web 2.0", they all agree that it means big changes in the way people communicate and share information.

From a library perspective, Rick Anderson from the University of Nevada (Reno Libraries) makes a good point when he writes: "it no longer makes sense to collect information products as if they were hard to get. They aren’t...As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc."

Library 2.0, to use the newly coined phrase, will impact upon the way libraries expand and reach out to their members, the way information is presented and sourced, and encourage greater two-way feedback and communication from members to libraries. For example, greater Internet presence, a user-friendly Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) where members can renew their own books, search, make 'wish lists' and provide feedback for the library management system.

With Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, we need to embrace and adapt to new technologies. Librarians will require greater IT skills and knowledge and the ability to plan for future innovations.