Journal Entry Week 10: The future of information organisation or does information organisation have a future?

Library 2.0 is a closely related term to user-generated content as the two are both related to each other.  According to Partridge et al (2010), Library 2.0 is a term use to describe the changes seen between the interactions of libraries and their users Library 2.0 is a concept that takes its name from Web 2.0 and follows the principles and techniques of Web 2.0 in terms of how it can be utilized within libraries. Technologies such as RSS Feeds, Podcasts, Weblogs and wikis are all examples of Web 2.0 that can be useful within libraries. With these technologies, users can publish text, sound and videos in a very quick manner. User-generated content enables users to index resources such as links, photos and videos. An example of a website that is very popular for enabling users to use these techniques is Wikipedia. With this said users can interact with libraries in a different way. Users-generated content can give the records of collection in libraries a more sophisticated look and however, make them easier to retrieve. With the use of tagging, reviews, and ratings users can greatly engage with libraries to provide multiple descriptions of a resource. Tagging behaviour is being carefully watched by those in the area of information organization (Chang and Iyer, 2012) as it is a means of understanding user motivation which in turn can inform information system design such as library catalogues and databases. Nevertheless, the future of user-generated content may see techniques such as tagging being incorporated in several libraries to assist users with categorizing collections and archiving different content from different resources.

References

Chang, H. & Iyer, H. (2012). Trends in Twitter Hashtag applications: design features for value-added dimensions to future library catalogues. Library Trends, 61(1), 248-258. Retrieved from: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/v061/61.1.chang.html

Partridge, Helen L., Lee, Julie M., & Munro, Carrie (2010) Becoming "Librarian 2.0": the skills, knowledge, and attributes required by library and information science professionals in a Web 2.0 world (and beyond). Library Trends, 59(1/2), pp. 315-335.