Abstract 

Introduction / Mary Joan Crowley

Web 2.0 is about connecting people (Facebook, MySpace, Ning), in an interactive (instant messaging, multimedia) collaborative workplace (slideshare, flickr, technorati, tagging) that everyone can edit (wikis, blogs). It is aka the social web or the read/write web.

To familiarise librarians with the possibilities of Library 2.0, three years ago, Helen Blowers, a librarian at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, devised a discovery learning programme, to encourage staff to explore the use of emerging technologies and how these might be applied within a library context.

Ciber-23librarythings is the first Italian version of this programme, and was launched among the Ciber-Caspur community on 5 January 2009.

Abstract

The Participatory Web: Web 2.0 and The Future of The Library / Gerry McKiernan

As characterized by Wikipedia, “‘Web 2.0’ describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0]

Such ‘participatory’ technologies include not only blogs (e.g. Blogger), photo-sharing (e.g. Flickr), social bookmarking (e.g. Delicious), but folksonomies (e.g., tagging), online social networks (e.g., Facebook), video-sharing (e.g., YouTube), and wikis (e.g., Wikipedia).

In this workshop we provide an overview of several significant Web 2.0 technologies and profile numerous examples of libraries worldwide that have implemented these interactive technologies in their efforts to enhance collaboration and communication with their respective communities.

Abstract

“Italian Library 2.0?”: One question, many answers / Bonaria Biancu

Is there such a thing as an “Italian Library 2.0”? How many libraries in our country use 2.0 tools? How many librarians have used 2.0 web tools to improve their library services, not to mention their own work (expertise, knowledge management, professional training etc.)?

Apart from the application of advanced information technologies, to what extent can we identify the applications of the principles of library 2.0 (sharing, participation, radical trust)?

How many of the experiments carried out to date have been evaluated in terms of impact on the organization, on user behaviour, on a costs/benefits model?

Through some concrete examples and answers to a recent survey, we can try to give a representation of how deep and eradicated web 2.0 is in Italian libraries.

Abstract

RSS as an easier alternative to OAI-PMH for sharing bibliographic information / Valeria Pesce

For libraries, adopting the Web 2.0 approach means going beyond offering a web interface to browse and search their catalogues; it means making their bibliographic information accessible by other consumer services.

Both the OAI architecture and the RSS mechanism are Web 2.0 solutions for making contents available to other services, easily accessible and re-usable.

The usual solution proposed to libraries for exposing their records is that of becoming Open Archive providers. Another possible and much easier solution could be exposing their bibliographic records through RSS feeds. This presentation discusses how RSS, although lacking some special features of OAI-PMH that are essential for library catalogues, can be succesfully used as an easier alternative for OAI-PMH or as an additional service for easier sharing and dissemination of the information.

Abstract

Will Web 2.0 ever meet up with the library catalogue? / Andrea Marchitelli

The web is changing: we can define it “web 2.0” or “Social web” or we can use some other word, but certainly we can’t deny that there is a change.

Some elements, above all those due to the on-line availability of content (i.e. full text) and that some contents (users generated contents) are produced by users, now called “prosumer”, are also generating change in the interfaces of libraries’ catalogues on the web: the web OPAC.

This address will pinpoint some particular changes in interfaces, in information retrieval systems and also how catalogue content is shown. The intention is to assess whether and to what extent these elements could be applied to the library catalogue.