The Web 2.0 “buzz” starts with new technologies such as virtual worlds, cell phones and handheld devices that offer 24/7 web access, tagging, social networks, and blogs and brings together various web capabilities in unique combinations (known as “mashing”—such as maps that also include the latest real estate property assessments). But Web 2.0 is about much more than the technology—it’s about a change in focus to participation, user control, sharing, openness, and networking. Pulled together, these technologies are a “parallel information universe” next to our own universe. This parallel universe provides us with constant feedback, resources, monitoring, information, connections, education, and interaction. It can be individualized and personalized, and we can interact individually or collectively with it. The key for libraries is that this is a parallel information universe. Libraries—as institutions founded on meeting people’s information needs—need to take the lead in this parallel information universe. Some libraries are diving in already, but the library world as a whole must engage with these developments and determine how we can use them to meet our users’ information needs better.
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