Two events I r-e-a-l-l-y wish I could go to:

Web 2.0: Current Realities and a Look to the Future

“Developers are working feverishly to create a second-generation Web environment.  Their objective is ambitious:  to facilitate the creation of new knowledge, resources, and tools, and to replicate the sophisticated information experience previously available only in closed proprietary environments.  But what exactly is this Web 2.0?  Is it a unique entity unto itself?  Or is it the convergence of the diverse technologies that are being created to transform the Web into an open collaborative workplace?

The program will answer these questions and more through an overview of Web 2.0 and the concepts and vocabulary that surround it.  Early adopters will discuss the practical applications of the new technologies that have emerged in its development, - technologies such as Wiki software, blogs, RSS feeds, Newsreaders, Social Bookmarking tools, folksonomies and more.  And industry experts will discuss the difference in functionalities between free services and fee-based services and how Web 2.0 can ultimately impact libraries, content providers and technology developers.”

Innovative Users Group meeting at ALA Midwinter (although this description isn’t posted there yet)

“Casey Bisson will be giving a special presentation on ‘Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0’ which will look at the World Wide Web as a ‘disruptive technology’ and how the Web affects libraries and our users. What role do web technologies and  concepts like social software, web 2.0, search engines, RSS, XML, and AJAX have in libraries? How can libraries catch up to user  expectations of our online services? How can we reinvent the OPAC to take advantage of these technologies?  Come to Casey's presentation for the answers to these and other questions!

Casey is the software developer and information technologist at Plymouth State University’s Lamson Library, where he specializes in building applications and systems to serve libraries and higher education.”

So are any bloggers going to either one of these? Help me, Obi-Wan Bloggers – you’re my only hope!

On a side note, at the Internet Librarian Conference last month, Michael Stephens and I had some great conversations about Library 2.0 (the concept, not the blog, although we heart the blog, too!). As a result, I had decided to try to do some mockups of library services and catalogs that implement some of the ideas (mainly because unlike Casey, I can’t actually create these things myself!). So I’ve uploaded to Flickr a mockup of an OPAC with tags for browsing. It’s an image I’ve been using in my presentations this year, but I haven’t had a chance to go further with it. For example, I’d like to do a catalog record with “see also” tags that are…well…tags, except they’re user-generated. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to do these, but I’ll try to add to them as time allows. I also added a screenshot of Casey’s proof-of-concept LOLA Suggest. Feel free to add your own! I think we could even include screenshots of sites illustrating the types of 2.0 functionality we'd like to see in our online services, so it doesn't have to be a mockup.

Addendum: Great article about Library 2.0 at Publish, a non-library site! Go read Library 2.0 Movement Sees Benefits in Collaboration with Patrons.