MIDLINE

Submitted by Karen Hanus
Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries, Milwaukee, WI

The Wisconsin Health Science Library Association (WHSLA) held a continuing education class on April 25, 2008 in Wausau, WI. "Medical Library 2.0: The Social Web Made Easy and Useful" was taught by David Rothman. David Rothman is an Information Services Specialist at the Community General Hospital Medical Library in Syracuse, NY. He is the author of a popular and informative blog which discusses all things relevant to internet technologies and medical libraries. He was featured in Library Journal's 2008 Movers & Shakers supplement.

The class started with a discussion about Web 2.0 terms and a brief survey to determine whether the class attendees really understood what these terms meant. The goal of David's CE course was to define a vocabulary related to Web 2.0 so that librarians can keep up and help each other.

Class progressed with definitions of and discussions about Web 2.0 terms. David started with an explanation of where the term Web 2.0 comes from. It was a personal conference brand for O'Reilly Media and became popularized after the first Web 2.0 conference. But, the term "Web 2.0″ is really just a metaphor representing the idea that the Web is in its "second version." Any critics (including Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web) have dismissed it as jargon. The term is so widely used now that it creates confusion where clarity is needed. Librarians need to understand the meaning of "Web 2.0" terms in order to decrease the confusion.

Other terms and trends were explored including:

• Leveraging the long tail


• Web as platform


• Wisdom of crowds


• Social software


• Blurring of the line between content consumer and content creator


• Perpetual beta


• Library 2.0


• Health 2.0


• Medicine 2.0