Del.icio.us, Technorati, & The Future of Libraries

This section was helpful for me. I still need to learn more about tags and how I can use del.icio.us and technorati better. I did find on technorati a really cool section on adding a gadget. There were hundreds to choose from. The radio stations interested me the most. I figured if I were a real Blogger, that is a professional mercenary type, that I would be spending hours upon hours on my blog and wanting to listen to some streaming music. But the best part of this weeks Learning 2.0 was reading the write-ups by the professional librarians. I especially liked "To a Temporary Place in Time...." by Dr. Wendy Schultz from Infinite Futures. Learning 4.0 is, to me, very imaginable. Libraries need to create the same buzz as does some of our popular book stores with cafes and places for people to relax. The problem is the capital funding. Libraries under public budgets can't create that buzz anytime soon. And the thought of Google or Starbucks or B&N or Amazon buying the libraries or becoming investment partners would create such a stir among those who want to hang on to the free services of the library versus those who want to see advancement. The library is a community. It is a place to not only get great books and knowledge, but also a place to take a workshop on how to knit, bake, create a website, a resume, or properly create a nice aquarium and not just your run of the mill aqua prison. Or it can be a place to learn how to give back and volunteer. B&N used the library model and installed the cafes. I believe that libraries have to do something similar in nature to get people interested in coming through their doors. Some already have cafes, but is that enough. Should Apple donate MP3 files of music on a listen only basis? Should Play Station place station for gamers in the libraries? How do we get the funding to create a buzz about the library and educate the staff and update the resources they currently have to meet the needs of people in the new world of information knowledge? Learning 2.0 is an excellent starting point. Each week I have anxiety about what I will learn next. But at the end of the lesson it was more inspiring than not. If Google plans to digitize all books, should they feel obligated to run a not-for-profit division that takes a percentage of sales and donates the money on a weighted basis to all libraries across the country with initiatives to get all libraries more resources? An independent panel not affiliated to Google to decide on the resources needed would have to be created. Just trying to think outside the box. However, some might say it is inside the box.