IFLA Cataloguing Section

The minutes of the meetings of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section during the Quebec conference are now available.

Web 2.0 Concepts to Enhance Digital Collections

The ‘Long Tale’: Using Web 2.0 Concepts to Enhance Digital Collections by Andrew Bullen appeared in the October 2008 issue of Computers in Libraries.

The wonderful Web 2.0 is a famously slippery concept to define. The very ambiguity of the term is Escheresque, self-referential to its ever-changing meaning. As Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, described it, “Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core.” As Illinois State Library’s information technology coordinator, I have come to realize that embracing this essential Web 2.0 philosophy is a useful tool in unlocking the true potential of digital collections. In fact, the central premise behind this article is that until we embrace Web 2.0 concepts, digital repositories cannot evolve beyond very useful cataloging tools.