#2 - Why Web 2.0 Matters

When people express surprise at parties or concerts that I'm a librarian ("Really? You're really a librarian?") I still am sometimes taken aback. I forget that people's images of professions are molded deep in their youth. So then I know I have a sell job at hand - one of those hideous "teachable moments". And the thing is, books and information are certainly a key reason I became a librarian, but for me it was people too. Many folks view librarianship as a retreat from people, and certainly the cliche image of the librarian in pop culture is a shy people-phobe, but I have always seen the profession - and the institutions we work within - as connectors - connecting people, the public, with information, with a book - or more broadly, with the world of knowledge and ideas that empowers the user. And to me Web 2.0 is an extension of the basic connecting work of libraries and librarians.



Bring it on!