#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

Well, our Learning Services del.icio.us site has 15 entries tagged under library2.0, which is a reasonable number, I guess. But nothing like the total number of blog posts and references out there. Google returns 162,000,000 results on the search term 'library 2.0' - so that rather puts it in perspective.

Obviously, one of the gurus on lib2.0 is Stephen Abram, who I first met at LIANZA last year, where he gave a keynote and a couple of other presentations. And again only the other week, when he did a presentation for CAVAL, which was so jam packed full of stuff that my note taking really couldn't keep up. His blog, Stephen's Lighthouse, is always interesting. But, if you were to judge what he had to say only from his blog posts, you might be forgiven for thinking that he is just another techno fan - although hugely well informed. But seeing him again the other week confirmed for me that that would be a very unfair judgement.

Just to give you an example, one of the many things he spoke about was the impact of gaming, and MMORPGs in particular. And the simple case for thinking that they are important and worth following? They are based on learning theory - specifically scaffolded learning, whereby you advance in stages, being challenged and then consolidating your learning, being challenged and then consolidating again. Sounds like the levels in gaming, doesn't it? And, even if you don't actually learn anything from the games (which is hard to imagine, since they are so social!), the structure reinforces a mode of learning which will enhance your engagement the next time you engage in some hard-core learning activity which uses the same teaching methodology.

So games, play and learning are all part of the one thing. Which is why they are important to libraries.

The other thing about Stephen is that he has very helpfully blogged on our insideadog youth literature website a couple of times, which all helps to spread the word.

And, talking of insideadog - that's very Library 2.0...