Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service (review)

The information technology revolution has shaken the library world like nothing else. Librarians nervously question their own relevance, take crash courses on the latest technological innovation, and try to cope with rapidly declining reference desk statistics as patrons go to the Internet for answers. Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service by Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk is an ambitious attempt to change this insecure paradigm and get librarians to embrace a new model of a user-driven library. Although the ambition of the book is appreciated, it is simply too shallow and wrongheaded to recommend.

The authors posit that the library world has lost touch with its users and that librarians are resistant to change that would help them meet their users' needs. Instead, librarians should aim for a more participatory model that "listens" to their patrons and is not afraid of radical change. To get there, librarians must constantly evaluate their services, listen to both staff and patron concerns, give users a voice in the creation and content management of their services, and be open to new ideas. Although the authors claim that the book is for everyone in the library world, it is clearly aimed at the administrative class since many of the changes discussed can only happen with the consent of library directors or deans.

Continuous evaluation is a key component of Library 2.0. Directors are urged to create separate investigative, planning, and review teams to constantly monitor new services and fine tune them when needed. The new services and changes should be familiar; they include blogs, RSS feeds, Chat IMs, wikis, MySpace, Facebook, Netflix, and Flickr. One of the more unusual suggestions is online librarian trading cards. One library even uses Netflix to get videos into the hands of their patrons.

While it is important to keep up with technology and be aware of how users' abilities have evolved, too much emphasis can leave a library vulnerable to the charges of "me-tooism." In fairness, the authors warn about this danger, but they seem blind to the social and institutional cost of relying too much on technologies as agents of change. Technological fads come and go, and it is to be expected that an improved social networking site will supersede both Facebook and MySpace in a few years. So what about the libraries' time investment in a now obsolete technology? The authors might answer that the regime of continuous evaluation will decide what technologies are working. Unfortunately, almost all of the examples listed do not have a mechanism for evaluation. How do you measure the effectiveness of a library MySpace page—by hits? Are students really thinking about library research when they go to their Facebook and MySpace accounts?

Beyond the misplaced technophilia, there is a more troubling premise behind Library 2.0. There is a capitulation to market forces. Examples from business are used without any awareness of the differences between a for-profit and non-profit organization. For instance, there is the old saw that "the customer is always right" in the business world; but, if you applied that to the library world, it would be a disaster. Librarians have an honorable and venerable tradition of saying when the patron is wrong as, for example, when patrons want certain books banned or censorious filters placed on computers. The book is also padded and repetitive. Readers are constantly urged to keep an open mind, to not be afraid of change, and so on. Basic concepts are explained multiple times throughout the text; for example, several chapters devote space to defining "Library 2.0," when one concise definition would be sufficient.

Library 2.0 does provide a useful service by comprehensively listing all of the new technological trends in one volume. The authors write in an easy, conversational style. Their ideas about having open conversations between staff and administration about change are...