Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The distance between here and 2.0

With so many 2.0 products coming out and so many people talking about how great they are, it is difficult to not become overloaded. "Hey look at this, that library is doing that." It can be very overwhelming.

On the other end, you have librarians frustrated that libraries are not moving fast enough. Some people seem to be always unsatisfied.

From an administrator's position, I would prefer someone else take the lead I can follow rather than go it alone. The problem is that if we try something drastic with our budget or staff, and it goes badly, then it can affect the general progress. A

llowing someone else to experiment and explore is what is great about blogs. Look at someone else, how are they doing it, how are they implementing it. Too often we hear how a library is doing something great, but not details on how they got there. Then we hear too many people saying, look at this neat tool, we can use it somehow let's do it. This is what you should do:



You need to always explore options, then, once tested by another, simply adapt your system. You risk nothing and gain everything. You don't become typecasted as a "bleeding edge person" and you don't get burned out by trying to keep that image up. Too many bloggers are trying to capture the bright and shiny so that they can be the first. It never works. Someone is always faster, goes on less sleep, and knows more tricks than you. Don't try to be that person, be you. Find what is useful and leave the rest, it is the only way to survive in this changing world.

2 comments:

Terry Dawson said...

Good thoughts here. I like the graphic (and will use it on people). I hope I'm in the middle -- though it's characteristic that people who are closer to the ends of the scale will see people in the middle as being on the other end :)

jdscott50 said...

Yes those at the extreme will always see the middle as on the other end. I try to balance the 2.0 but my higher ups refer to me as a techie. I like bridging gaps between extremes. I hope this helps keep people from getting burned out. Thanks for the comment.