23 things #15

Now I feel like I'm back in library school. While I love working in this profession, and feel that I am fairly progressive in accepting the changes it is experiencing, I'm much more interested in the hands on than in the theory. I think that this has been a great experience so far because it has forced us to actually do the things as opposed to just reading about them.

Having said that, I think that Away from the "Icebergs" was especially relevant. We need to be responsive to the changing expectations of the customers we serve. This is something, I think, that libraries have always strived to accomplish. I remember, a number of years ago, when the library system I worked for re-cataloged all of the Samuel Clemens' books to Mark Twain. Why? Because that's were the customers look for them. They also stopped spelling out all the names of the initial authors (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, etc.). Library 2.0 demonstrates the same thing on a new level. If we continue to stick to the old adages of the profession we risk losing our relevance in the world.