Throughout the past year or so, there has been a lot of buzz going around about “Web 2.0″ — the increasing prevalence of Web-based social software, including blogs, wikis, podcasts, and tagging. The technologies that underlie this trend have been around for a while, and some of them, particularly tagging, should be familiar to librarians.

But I wonder how many librarians have thought about a fundamental question that is raised by the public’s recent embrace of these technologies, namely, “Can public libraries remain relevant when people start producing, publishing, and cataloging information by themselves, without the involvement of any centralized institution or authority?”

Is this question just alarmist? Maybe. But consider the following.

For many years, computers were controlled by centralized institutions and authorities. Anybody wanting to use a computer had to work through a university or a government agency to get access to huge, cumbersome, controlled machines. Then around 1980 the “personal” computer began to appear on the market. Within about 15 years, 50 million people were using personal computers. Companies that failed to recognize this trend, like Digital Equipment Corporation, were soon irrelevant and extinct. Companies that recognized the trend and provided products to enable it became rich.

Substitute “cataloged information” for “computer”; substitute “library” for “university or a government agency”; substitute “2004″ for “1980″; substitute “2 years” for “15 years”; and substitute “libraries” for “companies.” Now read the preceding paragraph again. Should you substitute the name of your library for “Digital Equipment Corporation?”

Here’s another example. When the Internet was opened to the public, it took only four years before 50 million people were using it. When commercial activity on the Internet was allowed in 1992, companies that noticed the number of people using the Internet and noticed their desire to buy things over the Internet — and were able to move _fast_ to enable this commercial activity — became rich. Companies that did not quietly disappeared.

What I am suggesting is that Web 2.0 is giving people unprecedented control of information, giving them the power to do many of the things that radio, newspapers, magazines, and (yes!) libraries have done in the past. What I am suggesting is that libraries (and radio, and newspapers, and magazines) will feel subtle but important effects of Web 2.0 almost overnight. What I am suggesting is that libraries that embrace Web 2.0 _quickly_ and give people more control of library resources will prosper, and those that don’t will become irrelevant.

How quickly can your library give people the power to make purchase suggestions, to request alerts when certain types of new materials are available, to check out materials by themselves, to renew materials over the Web, to post comments about materials they have used, to ask questions and get answers in real time? How quickly can you put your users in charge?

If you are using open-source software, how quickly you take advantage of Web 2.0 is within your own control. If you are using proprietary software, do everything you can to push your vendor to give you the capabilities you need — immediately!

But remember: you only have a few months to take advantage of this special, one-time opportunity…

About the Author

Stephen Hedges is the Executive Director of OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network. Before OPLIN, he served as the Director of the Nelsonville Public Library System in Athens County Ohio. Under Stephen's direction, Nelsonville became the first public library system in the United States to use open-source software for all circulation, cataloging, management, and web services, positioning it as a world-wide leader in the implementation of open-source library software.