When I was studying Librarianship back in 1996, the buzz was all about the Internet, and its potential to make Libraries, and Librarians, redundant. At the time I thought it was all a storm in a teacup. The Internet would simply change the way we Librarians did our work - even make our work more valuable. I believe the same of Web 2.0 - and beyond. The world is changing, just as it always has (even though the change does seem to be becoming more rapid). We need to change with it. We can change with it. We are changing with it.
Rick Anderson's article "Away from the icebergs" makes a good point. We need to loosen our grip on certain "truths". In addition to the three icebergs he discusses, there are others that could be added. Our love for, and reliance on, a controlled vocabulary for instance. I find this one particulary hard to let go of. I was initially appalled at the thought of users being able to tag pages with whichever term they chose! But then I realised that, although it wouldn't result in a beautifully indexed world, a lot of people would still be able to find a lot of information. Perfect - no. Acceptable - yes!
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