On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

Between the idea and the reality,
Between the motion and the act,
Falls the shadow.
...
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, but a whimper.

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot


I wanted to use the above quotation for this post, but my mind went blank and all I could remember was between the something and the something falls the something. I was sure it was Eliot, but I didn't have enough for Google to give me anything. I tried, but of course, but my information was too limited. However, the trusty Bartlett's Familiar Quotations came through.

And in a sense this whole experience is a metaphor for Library 2.0 and Web 2.0. All of things that they encompass are wonderful, but they are not the complete picture. That is my problem with the Library 2.0 concept, at least as I have heard it explained by some: that it is wider, broader, bigger, better. It is a component and a good one; it is another tool, another resource, maybe (when talking about the web) even the best, but it does not stand alone. Education, in general, enables us to OPEN our minds, to broaden and stimulate us, and anything that helps us to do that is fantastic. But we (librarians, Americans, the world) seem to be looking for a panacea. There isn't one. While praising all that is beneficial about Library 2.0, etc. let's also admit any failings.

Between the idea and the reality,
Between the motion and the act,
Falls the failure.

(My apologies to Eliot.)

So, don't REPLACE Bartletts (I am speaking here metaphorically), but expand on it, use it and the web as a team, incorporate what is useful to us as librarians from Library 2.0, but take off those rose-colored glasses and be ready to keep moving, because something else is just around the corner.