For the penultimate module in my 23 Things course I've been reading about how things have grown since Web 1.0 in 1990 and where things are going next.
Readers may be interested to know that my friend Dr John Carlow was a scientist working alongside Tim Berners-Lee on the Internet project in the late 1980s at CERN, the physics laboratory in Geneva, but due to family circumstances he had to move back to England. He always says that if he didn't have to leave Geneva it could have been HIM and not Tim Berners-Lee who created the World Wide Web! But I digress.....
We currently use Web 2.0 but many important organisations are putting lots of money and research into making Web 3.0 (The 'Semantic Web') happen and it is predicted that by 2030 we will have progressed to Web 4.0.
The 'Semantic Web', mentioned above, tries to understand exactly what we are looking for when we use search engines in order to get the most accurate results and group similar things together. For instance, I could be searching for Dove - the brand name - and could get results on the type of bird instead. The Semantic Web tries to understand the nature of one's search, but this reality is still a long way off. Something else relating to the concept of the Semantic Web is linked data. This is when information can be linked together by certain coding and could greatly benefit library catalogues in the future.
More about the Semantic Web can be found here:
http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/semantic-web.htm
On another subject, I've enjoyed reading about Mashups. These are websites or web pages which bring related information together from a variety of sites and present them in a new way. One of these really great websites is called Panoramio:
http://www.panoramio.com/
This site shows photos from all over the world and on the same page a map marker shows exactly where in the world the photo was taken. I've just uploaded a photo I took in Las Vegas two weeks ago. Take a look:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/72104165
For the last part of this module I've been reading about Mobile Technology and its current and future impact on libraries. There are so many more portable devices in use now than ever before and less and less people are using desktop PCs, so libraries really do need to keep abreast of this technology to avoid being left behind! Mobile Apps are available for everything nowadays, from checking to see if your scheduled train is on time to using your mobile phone as your boarding pass at the airport! There are library-related apps too of course, such as one which allows you to scan a book's barcode and read other people's reviews of it. Other ideas for library apps - some may already exist - include apps to renew your loans, to check which books are the most popular, or to book a public PC.
Location based services - or LBS - use GPS mapping to identify the mobile phone user's nearest cafe, library, bank, etc. If library users were to use this technology to 'check in' on social networking sites, it would create publicity for these places and heighten awareness of their existence - all very good in the case of libraries when we want to remind people that we do still exist!
QR codes ("QR" stands for quick response) are also on the increase. These are graphics which act like a barcode when scanned with a mobile phone and can take you straight to a website, a photo, or even to hear a piece of music. These are easy to create and could be most useful with regard to libraries.
I do not think that all of the above technologies solely represent our libraries' future but I do think we need to take them all on board and move with the times to ensure we don't get left behind and so that libraries aren't seen as outdated.
As for inventing an app which a member of the public could find useful in regard to libraries, I am not fully aware of what is already 'out there' so I will probably suggest something which already exists, but how about library members having a barcode or QR code on their mobile device which they merely scan in order to get their books issued, doing away with the need to have a physical library card? Or an app where the borrower can pay fines on overdue loans using something like PayPal?
I am now going on to the final module!
