Interesting article about 2.0 -- I totally endorse!

http://www.lyponline.com/infocus/0908/In_Focus.htm
This piece sums up my thoughts exactly.
No Techno-Lust,
More User Focus

If this project ends up just attaching some "cool tools" to our website, I'll be very disappointed.

Fresh Thoughts on Web/Library 2.0
By Rob Cullin

You need to blog. You need to Wiki. You need a Facebook/MySpace account. You need to get into Second Life. Haven’t we all heard enough of this in the last year or so? When we can barely find the time to do the work we already have, how can we find the time to do these “new” things, and why should you even care?

Maybe we should all start spending less time on the “cool tools” and more time on listening to what our customers (current and potential) really want and need. Making the library better and easier to use should be our first priority. How we attract more people to use the library should then be the second priority since it won’t help as much to attract new customers if your “product” isn’t as good as it can be. Plus, if your library is great and meets the needs of your customers and community, some of the challenge of attracting more customers will take care of itself.

Our real intent should be focused on making our library’s environment (physical spaces, cyberspaces and, most importantly, person-to-person interaction) participatory, collaborative and community/customer driven.

It should be more about what our communities want, and less about what we – librarians, staff and trustees – think our community needs. Or, worse yet, what we personally prefer.