Why aren’t library catalogs more Web 2.0?
One of the questions after David Weinberger’s talk Monday is why library catalogs don’t have more features like some of the Web 2.0 tools and Web sites like Amazon have. What would be so wrong with suggestions like “People who read this book also read …” or informal book reviews and tagging integrated into catalogs? Privacy issues, especially in the post-9/11 world, jumped into my head immediately. Laws and librarians’ professional ethics place great importance on library customer confidentiality. In systems with a very large patron base, it might not be so easy to trace a list of books and figure out who might have checked them all out. However, in small town libraries, being able to do that might not be so difficult.
Is there a way to do it that protects borrower privacy? In my book group, people often voluntarily discuss other books they’ve read without regard to their privacy. What about giving other specific library catalog users different levels of permission to view book recommendations? In a book group, someone could opt to share certain books she’s reading with other group members, but not to the public at large.
Of course, technology needs to change to offer these options and that’s going to take a while. First, the catalog developers need to know it’s something their customers want, then they have to integrate the features. And, of course, they’re going to have to convince some of their customers that the features are desirable.
I know some catalogs offer certain Web 2.0 features. More and more will as time goes by.
I look forward to it.
