ICTlogy

Abstract:

The current social-technical system named “Digital Library” 2.0 can be viewed as a “social machine” made up of tools and organizational rules and praxis, dedicated to opening up the information management and access to a Web-wide scale. However for the very nature of the 2.0 applications centred on a “read-write” approach and on the social paradigms, the consequence of “2.0 digital libraries” brings also frustration in the information management due to the overload of resources and connections which are thus far made easily available via multiple channels and modes. In this paper we provide our view on the emerging nature of a Personal Information Environment (PIE) system at the beginning of the third decade of the Web. Such analysis should pave the way for a clearer conceptual design of libraries’ innovative services to better meet users’ needs. We conclude the paper highlighting two key functions for next generation of digital libraries: 1) developing expertise for monitoring, adopting and developing new social machines coming from the frontiers of web development 2) supporting library users in developing higher order skills in their personal information and knowledge management approaches. While in this paper we focus more specifically on the issue 1), we do defend the idea that the issue 2) can be participated by libraries in close synergy with educational institutions with great advantages for the library users.