Academic libraries and library 2.0 : are we getting there?

Abstract

Internet’s and World Wide Web’s emergence as every day tools for the management of information systems contributed in the change and, mainly, in the possibility for change with regard to the development of user services strategies in academic libraries. The modern systems for the dissemination of information even if they maintain, to a large extent, the structure and, substantially, the form of previous decades – regarding, of course, the services offered within library walls – can, and should, demonstrate new techniques of exploiting and distributing information. The level of exploitation and integration of modern technological innovations in the informational environment that a library creates is an interesting point for investigation. Integration that should serve the needs of library’s personnel and users locally and, at the same time, advances its role through a worldwide system that exchanges and distributes information. This paper aims to examine the level of integration of the, so called, Web 2.0 (or Social Web) in today’s user services system within an academic library, better known as Library 2.0 (or L2). The web sites of 200 academic libraries worldwide were examined in order to document if those academic libraries offer any “Library 2.0 services”. Additionally, a research that involves 38 Greek academic libraries is, also, presented.