Using GoogleBlog as a search engine, I found many of the predictable names in the Library 2.0 (L2) conversation: Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk, Philip Bradley, Meredith Farkas, John Blyberg and Laura Cohen, as well as Kate Sheehan and K.G. Schneider. Paul Pival as "The Distant librarian" working in Canada and Jeff Scott, library manager in Arizon both have blogs with current posts on the topic of L2. One blog referred to another, and one site led me to more and more. So what started with GoogleBlog became a dynamic treasure hunt.
My most profitable find, though, was a blog with the combination of L2 and the academic library setting. Suzanne Chapman serves as "the interface and user testing specialist" for the University of Michigan Library's Digital Library Production Service. Her blog , UsersLib.com, site provides extensive reading in various related topics, and naturally the topic of L2 as it concerns her university library is part of her treasure.
In short, my rationale for choosing to add this blog to mine is that Suzanne is living out the dual focus of my blog: how do we implement Library 2.0 for our academic library users?
So I'm happy to direct my readers to http://userslib.com/category/library-20/ and especially to Suzanne's post from last month entitled "Data: Students + Facebook + Library Outreach." The article is "keepin' it real" by reminding us that technology alone does not an L2 make.
I posted recently about our library web survey but I thought it’d be interesting to talk a little about one particular question: If you could contact a librarian via Facebook or MySpace for help with your research, would you? If not, why?
The main impetus for this question comes from a current trend for libraries to create Facebook apps that allow OPAC searching and other library related functionality from within Facebook. There has also been a lot of discussion and experimentation with using Facebook for reference and outreach. ... Nearly half of the total respondents stated they would not be interested, but for various reasons - the biggest reason being that they feel the current methods (in-person, email, IM) are more than sufficient. 14% said no because they felt it was inappropriate or that Facebook/MySpace is a social tool, not a research tool. Though this latter category does not represent a majority, these responses were the most emphatic.
Suzanne's comments in response to the data make for interesting reading, particularly her comment on what many students have yet to understand about FaceBook and privacy. Check out her full post when you have a moment.
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