# 15 W 2.0 / L 2.0

The L 2.0 program has shown us that there is a vast range of shared, multifunctional and interactive web-based technology. I think that the challenge for libraries will be to identify the most useful and appropriate features to incorporate into their web sites. We wouldn't want to invest considerable time, effort and money into passing fads, dead-end technology or user-unfriendly or unpopular features. Privacy is another consideration.

While moving with the times, staying up-to-date with technology and remaining relevant to our communities is very imporatnt, we also need to consider patrons who aren't interested in web-based technology, don't understand it or aren't prepared to try. We can offer user education and on-the-spot help, but some folk, particulary older people and those with language difficulties, will find it all too hard, and will avoid it. We still have to cater for these people.

The internet has already led to lower usage of non-fiction and reference collections and therefore downsizing of those collections, but I think that a signiificant number of patrons just want a good (fiction) read. Library budgets should still provide for this.

The interactive, 24 hour nature of the technology could be very useful for getting patron feedback, especially when conducting surveys. However, experience has shown us that on-line opportunities to provide general feedback tend to encourage some young, computer-savvy people to send barely intelligible, very trivial or chatter-type responses.

Our challenge will be to reach a wider audience with specific, relevant questions or proposals, through user-friendly technology. As for the introduction of shared networking spaces, such as social networking sites, I think we need to carefully consider whether these sites are appropriate for the majority of our users, whether people's privacy is protected, and overall, what benefits we hope to achieve.

#14 Technorati

After searching high and low for a place to do a search of Blog posts, tags and the Blog Directory, I found the Advanced Search link! Subsequent searches revealed that there were 1214 posts about Learning 2.0, 274 tags and 374 Directory listings. Obviously, the posts are the most popular by far, but it's surpriisng that more people don't use the L 2 tag or register it.

Popular blogs showed an emphasis on technology, business/money, and entertainment/lifestyle, while searches concentrated on music, sport, technology and social matters. Tags were similar, but also included video and blogging.

Technorati is a good place to search the different aspects of blogs

#13 Del.icio.us Tags

I like the idea of assigning your own tags to your favourite web sites and then having these tags grouped under subject headings. It makes access to the web sites quick and easy, and there may also be related tags to explore.

It's good to see which sites other people have selected and how popular they are. This allows you to expand your own list of sites and tags and therefore increases your search options.

Putting the tags in order of frequency is a useful feature. However, I found that the comments people made, were not descriptive enough to be very helpful.

Here is my Del.icio.us account http://del.icio.us/longroad
Over 4000 people tagged my Lonely planet listing in a few minutes!

The network feature could be handy for sharing bookmarked sites in a work setting.

#12 Rollyo

This is a useful means of narrowing a search to your favourite web sites and doing one search across all of them simultaneously. You get many good results, quickly.

Here is my Search Roll http://www.rollyo.com/stuartdh

#11 LibraryThing

LT was quick, easy and fun to use. It would be useful for cataloguing, producing booklists and being the focus of book discussion groups. The ability to add your own tags and ratings etc. is also appealing.

I chose a range of fairly rare non-fiction books, mainly true escape stories and rescues, but LT found many records, some with jacket photos. It only failed to find one, which is an Australian crime story.

Here is My Library http://www.librarything.com/catalog/stuartdh07

#10 Image Generators

Would you follow this car? I wanted to have a longer message, "Sorry, my satellite navigation got lost," but the program put it in capitals and compressed it so much that it was unreadable. All messages are converted to capitals.

Here is where you can create your own car sticker
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Car+Sticker
The Generator Blog has a huge range of other images for you to customise.

#9 Finding Feeds

Bloglines Search has a useful "preview" feature and Feedster allows you to put feeds on your blog. Topix.net is very fast and provides a comprehensive list of news results. Google Blog Search offers e-mail alerts and blog search feeds, while Technorati is quick and comprehensive.

ANZ Reference Centre allows you to quickly and easily add feeds to particular magazines. I also noticed that the Mozilla and Yahoo web sites already offer useful lists of RSS feeds.