Gary,
I've looked at Surrey's website (I'm looking for a job, and you have a few vacancies at the moment), and I have to say I'm impressed :)
Surrey Libraries must have the organisation in place to be able to go by the book.
There is though if I may be so bold another edition of the book out!! And it has an additional chapter on social technologies in it. No rest for the wicked I guess ;)
How about if I were to say that libraries could use social technologies in two ways:
1) Enhancing their internal culture by encouraging staff to jump on the social technologies bandwagon, dipping their toes in the library culture we have on the web nowadays that we never used to have; and
2) Engage much more than ever before in a dialogue with the communities the libraries serve, maybe not so much with the more senior members whose preferred medium of communication is the traditional library, but certainly teen and young adult.
The philosophy I think essentially is new technologies come along, and we apply ourselves creatively till all the possibilities are exhausted.
As to a nationwide (global? ;) library offer, much of this at this stage I would guess goes in the R&D portfolio of a technology strategy. I would argue that the nature of the 'industry sector' at the moment is one of intense innovation, which implies a certain organisation structure which supports innovation. Surely anyway, whatever matures and is thought to be useful to everyone could be put in the nationwide offer.
There is an issue of is a library 'just books', or about community. Maybe the libraries need to re-engage with the community a touch, society has changed, they don't have the esteem they once have that they deserve. We are also though looking at the potential for libraries with new technologies to be much better at engaging the community. I think most of the community would probably agree that the potential benefits of a community focus at this point are compelling and that for £19 a year out of their taxes financially it's very worth it. With all the latest technologies we have the opportunity to raise our culture. It's about a much better library than we have had in the past, the libraries need more in their budget to do this, not less. (OK, back off my soapbox ;)
Gareth Osler
Library Web
http://libraryweb.info
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