I’ve been chattering with Pete Smith and Brad Hinton about Library 2.0. It’s been very interesting. Today, relating some of our recent talks on examples of Library 2.0 with my colleague Andrew Boyd, he made the following suggestion to me:
“Amazon is Library 2.0″
I laughed, knowing how much of a stir it would cause amongst some readers, but was Andrew very far from the truth?
Of course some people will say Amazon is just about buying books, but it really is much more than that. Amazon is about people, about community building, enabled through the participation that social computing brings. It achieves this through trust and encouraging users to write, rate, and comment against everything in their collection. It even makes the collection open to developers to use, re-use and improve!
These are all fundamental aspects of Web 2.0. If libraries are to evolve toward Library 2.0, then I think they need to look at social computing models like Amazon and learn from it.
For example, David Lee King, in presenting on Web 2.0, suggests that ordering a book from Amazon is better experience than interacting with an OPAC system.
Garrett Hungerford of Zen Library asks some poignant questions of those considering Library 2.0 and points to Amazon as having some answers:
“Do you know what book was the most popular at your library last year? Amazon knows what theirs was and can recommend 4 other books that you’d like as well, automatically.
“Could I please have better search results? I want results to resemble an Amazon product page. This information IS useful:
- Anonymous patron gave title A, 4 of 5 stars
- 98% of people that check out this book, also, checked out title B
Amazon has an Internet Movie Database. Why haven’t libraries formed an Internet Book Database? And no, WorldCat doesn’t count. I want to see what’s upcoming, what readers have to say, what books have received awards, etc.
I’m not saying that Amazon has all the answers, but it does understand its users, it does understand that it needs to constantly improve itself, and it does have services that people want and use in a collaborative way that centres on those needs over and above the need to control and manage its collection. It’s about as close to Library 2.0 as I’ve seen or read about (and no, I’m not including prototypes, alphas, betas, or closed library systems that can only be accessed inside the library).
As Garrett Hungerford so eloquently puts it, “library users are not going to change the system; they will seek other outlets and means of getting the information they need”. Right now, that means if you’re a library, Amazon could be your competition.
…so what are you doing about it?
M
22 May, 2007 at 12:57 pm |
Amazon is Library 2.0
Amazon is not about buying books, but is about people, about community building, enabled through the participation that social computing brings. It achieves this through trust and encouraging users to write, rate, and comment against everything in thei…
22 May, 2007 at 2:51 pm |
Thanks Matt,
lots of good reasons why there was something to my jest in this post – I know that I am not the first person to have made the comparison, but the feeling that I am not alone is gratifying
I think that there are two main parts to Library 2.0 for me:
- that the library really is no longer a physical construct but an information support system, and
- that there are a lot of people adding value to it – the librarians and library assistants are an important part, but there are a lot of other people involved now in a contribution sense.
Cheers, Andrew
22 May, 2007 at 6:13 pm |
To me libraries are absolutely notabout information. At least that is not all they are about. They are, as is said, about community access to stories, ideas, ideals and to people who care about those things.
Amazon can’t learn about me the way a local library could, given the resources. This could then be parlayed into a social computing base, alongside Amazon style recommendations.
Fundamentally Amazon is a business. It cares about money. That is not in any way a bad thing, but there it is- the basic difference. It is about buying books and all the cosy fuzzy warmth of social Amazon is designed to sell more books. Again, nowt wrong with that, but I wouldn’t want to confuse it with playing nice
If libraries could emulate Amazon- which they are to some extent- all good. Building in commenting, sharing ideas etc. But they must not lose sight of the fact that they are a physical entity, and are about as much bringing people into contact with each other and the space that libraries represent as they are about ‘information.’
Amazon can’t recommend one book I’d like a lot of the time- it can just about tell me what other people bought which is not the same thing
22 May, 2007 at 6:18 pm |
PS there’s a great mini graphic novel in the Unshelved collection Library Mascot Cage Matchwhich answers a lot of the questions posed, more eloquently than I can. it’s damn funny too
23 May, 2007 at 2:52 am |
Interesting thought – a private vendor as the heir to a public service. The economist in me is excited. It makes sense that people don’t want to be the drivers in every improvement process. We expect the providers – public as well as private – to take initiative (preferably by reading our minds).
I think libraries are falling behind very quickly, but I do think that they have a role to play, in part because of their specialty knowledge (which is their own argument for being slow to change – they feel that they know best). The trick for them is to share their expertise without becoming judges of what is right, wrong, or politically incorrect.
Wikipedia is a case in point: the use of selfproclaimed experts was a strength in the beginning, but is now becoming a problem, like in the case of US Congress employees changing information about their employers to make them look good (or of opponents to make them look bad). Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has created Citizendium.org as an expert-guided public information portal. If this works, perhaps libraries can take it as inspiration for future endeavours.
/Uffe
23 May, 2007 at 8:41 am |
Amazon is Library 2.0
Today, relating some examples of Library 2.0 my colleague Andrew Boyd made the following suggestion to me: “Amazon is Library 2.0″. Was Andrew very far from the truth?
23 May, 2007 at 10:41 am |
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