Last week I was rather overwhelmed with the idea of all this new technology. I am still rather overwhelmed. There is so much one can do which if advertised, could open the Public Library to so many more people in the community. Many people do not realise the immense quantity and quality of services provided by the Library and this is a marvellous way to reach them. If, of course, you can get around your IT department (I bet I am not the only one doing this at home because the IT dept can't cope - which brings up the question for another day "will we ever be able to effectively use this skill in a work situation?")
On the other hand there are also an equivalent number of concerns. Copyright, plagiarism, privacy etc, the list is quite worrying. I think it will be many years before these issues are properly identified and dealt with, I suppose all we as Librarians can do is be ever on the alert but not let the problems demoralise us.
I am very grateful for this course as it is beginning to demystify Web 2.0 and hopefully I will not now automatically hand all such concerns over to someone under 25.
