Library 2.0 - a new participatory context

The 10th ILI conference under the theme Translating 2.0 Technologies for Tangible Benefits & Transparency took place in London on 16 - 17 October. Gunilla Widén-Wulff, Maria Kronqvist-Berg and Outi Nivakoski were there to listen interesting presentations and also to present our own research project.

The conference had a very practical orientation, and it was useful to hear about implementations of Web 2.0 technologies in different kinds of libraries and other organizations. There were also forecasts for the future, for example in the inspiring panel discussion What Constitutes a Next Generation Library by Michael Stephens, Michael Casey and Thomas Brevik, in which also the audience engaged lively.

The atmosphere in the conference was truly international, since the participants came from all over the globe. Also the presentations discussed application of Web 2.0 tools in various countries. All in all, it can be said that we experienced the global Library 2.0 phenomenon in a nutshell!

NORSLIS (Nordic Research School in Library and Information Science) gave a course on Public libraries and the Nordic welfare state - the changing role of public libraries in Uppsala September 29 - October 3. Maria Kronqvist-Berg and Outi Nivakoski participated in this course and presented their subprojects. Outi is studying opinions and trends in library blogspace and Maria is studying the context and stakeholders of public library 2.0.

The course was very well-organized and the lectures gave insight into the research on public libraries role concerning both historical and contemporary perspectives. There were lectures on, for example, the public library as a meeting place, social capital and public libraries and how to use discourse analysis in public library research. The senior researchers who gave the lectures were Michael Buckland, Ilkka Mäkinen, Kerstin Rydbeck, Ragnar Audunson, Frank Huysmans, Andreas Vårheim, Laura Skouvig och Svanhild Aabø.