Meeting Users in Wikipedia

I written and spoken before about putting reference services in the flow of users - making the resources and services available to users at their point of need. One example of this could be adding references to library resources, especially digital collections, to Wikipedia articles.

I posted about this in the RISG blog after reading an article called Harnessing Social Networks to Connect with Audiences: If You Build it, Will They Come 2.0?

Here Comes the 3rd Idea: another post about Clay Shirky's book

In concuding my thoughts after reading Here Comes Everybody I wrote a post on the RISG blog posing the question: Is Web 2.0 a Revolution? The line of thought in this post goes along these lines.

If Web 2.0 and social networking become ubiquitous and hence everyone becomes not only information consumers but also content producers then any organisation that relies on managing information is going to be profoundly effected. I think we are already seeing a shift toward people trusting their personal networks for information over traditional institutions.

Libraries are an institution.

How are libraries responding to the shift and preparing themselves for the future?