Thursday, February 25, 2010

Is Library 2.0 dead?

With the closure today of Ning Library 2.0 happening today, the decrease in blog posts and increase in micro blogging, it seems that library 2.0 as a meme is on the demise. In some ways this is true.
This maybe seen in the closure of the Ning site, in which Bill Drew said of its closure:-

The network has not seen much traffic the last few months and most people requesting to join are posting profiles full of link spam. The return is no longer worth the work. I am not transferring it to anyone else......... It grew far beyond my wildest hopes. At one point it got over 50 posts a day but is now getting less than 4 posts a month.

It seems that library 2.0 had lost its cadre of zest for many users. Although Bill points out many users and post joined at first this dropped. Without a conversation (and too much spam), people would disappear.

Other area's where there seems a decline in what has been termed web 2.0 is a decline or at least change in blogging, especially with some of the early library 2.0 bloggers. Jenny Levine's Shifted Librarian has changed her blog into a lifestream rather than a blog. This she describes as:-

lets me run a stripped-down version of my own personal Friend Feed (but without the comments on individual items). It totally rocks.

Michael Casey's influential Librarycrunch has become the Michael Casey blog, therefore its become an individual blog, rather than a more group/borg blog.

Brian Mathews blog the Ubiquitous librarian said recently:-

However I’ve noticed a steady overall decline in post quantity in 2009. Walt probably has an algorithm to measure that. I think the probable cause is that many of us were moving past the newbie stage of librarianship and were really starting to sink our teeth into the profession. Now we’re just too busy for constant online reflection. Additionally, Facebook and Twitter have evolved to replace the long form narrative (blog posts) in favor of quick bursts of ideas.

In many ways, the Library 2.0 seems a fallacy of the past. A word we used to start a conversation about. A word we used to bind us and throw around idea's. It was something new at the time.

Now, even the word library 2.0 seems dated, and we are now in the realm of semantic web/web 3.0.

Its a shame the ning site has closed, but that shows the speed of change in the digital/library world. Anyway, library 2.0 is not dead, as I would have to change my blog and thats not likely to happen.

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