National Web Library 2.0: Are national libraries ready for the new version?

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Svensson, Lars G.

Affiliations: German National Library. E-mail: l.svensson@d-nb.de

Abstract: Community building and community-generated content are central concepts in both Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. So far, the discussion and most of the activity in the library sphere have focused on public libraries (in the North American sense) and some academic libraries whereas e.g. national libraries have not been mentioned in this context. It can be argued, that whereas public and academic libraries serve a well-defined community (the local population or the university's students and faculty), this does not apply to national libraries. In this paper we will show that national libraries have already adopted some of the most important concepts of both Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 – but within their own specialised community and without using the Web.

DOI: 10.3233/ISU-2007-27302

Journal: Information Services & Use, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 91-95, 2007