Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0 by Chad and Miller, mentions that ‘Talis believes that Library 2.0 means harnessing this type of participation so that libraries can benefit from increasingly rich collaborative cataloging efforts, such as including contributions from partner libraries as well as adding rich enhancements, such as book jackets or movie files, to records from publishers and others. Participation has exploded lately on the Web with the appearance of blogs, discussion groups, wikis, RSS aggregators, and the article without doubt recommends using these Web 2.0 technologies in the proposed transformation which is Library 2.0.
Library 2.0 is a concept of a very different library service, geared towards the needs and expectations of today’s library users. In this vision, the library makes information available wherever and whenever the user requires it, and seeks to ensure that barriers to use and reuse are removed. Amazon, Google, eBay, Skype and the other darlings of the Information Revolution do not threaten the progressive library. Rather, they create whole new opportunities for us to engage with an empowered, interested, and skilled set of audiences (Miller, 2006). While some of the comparisons presented in the article are not very well chosen, the final conclusion is a wake up call for the whole industry and that is in a way what matters.
