Everyone's a librarian now

To examine the role of the information professional in the Web 2.0 information society, specifically exploring how we operate in the context of an explosion of user-generated content and new, informal channels of information distribution such as blogging and social bookmarking. The workshop will discuss some of the problems faced by information professionals (and students) and how these may be addressed. To the information professional, this new paradigm of universal, amateur participation in the creation of content and metadata can seem anathema to what we learned in library school. Concerns have been expressed about a perceived lack of quality control; about the inappropriate use of information (or the use of inappropriate information), and whether tagging by untrained users might make our cataloguing skills redundant. Should we contribute to these spaces alongside our users? Should we moderate user input, or would this constitute censorship? How can we educate users to harness these tools for selecting and using information in a responsible way? By the end of the workshop, participants will have considered the impact that web 2.0 technologies may have on the traditional role of the librarian. This impact will be examined from two opposing viewpoints: (i) that these technologies may ultimately make us redundant by providing the tools for amateurs to perform our role (ii) that by increasing the complexity and diversity of the information landscape they may make the need for librarians, who will educate users in the appropriate use of such tools, even more acute. In addition, participants will also have an understanding of some of the driving forces that have contributed to the web 2.0 shift. The session will start with a brief introduction to Web 2.0 technologies (including RSS, Atom, blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, folksonomies and tagging, user ratings and social networks). Debate and participation will be encouraged through splitting the group and asking them to confront common misconceptions that are held about libraries. These will be presented in the form of comments from various potential library users including members of the public, students, academics and others. We will ask them firstly how they could respond to these comments on behalf of their library service, and secondly to suggest ways in which information professionals might employ Web 2.0 tools to enhance the work we do. After the groups feed back the results of their discussions, we will demonstrate real-life examples where web 2.0 tools have been employed to good use.