Recently I needed to schedule a medical procedure. Time was important but it was not an emergency. The doctor coldly passed the duty off to a receptionist or some such. It turns out the receptionist was out that day. So they follow the procedure and say "We'll call you back". After several requests they finally call back and say "We take seven days to call you back and schedule your procedure." Once the call finally comes it takes just a few hours to set everything up.

Yesterday I ordered some computer accessories from the Apple Store with 2-3 day shipping. Today Fed-Ex left a tag on my door saying they'd arrived. All along -- last evening and today -- I had a view of the package in transit. When I called Fed-Ex tonight and asked them to keep the packages at the depot instead of attempting delivery tomorrow I got a short answer, "No problem". Fifteen minutes later the phone rang. It was the local Fed-Ex office wanting me to know they had set the packages aside and they would be available first thing in the morning.

Why is all this on a blog about libraries and innovation? Well here we have the essence of what distinguishes a 2.0 organization from a 1.0. Here we have quite a contrast. The doctor's office deals with the very essence of people's beings; their well being. The simplest communications and sharing of information could have made a bad situation into a good one. Doctor's offices are, largely, stuck in the 1.0 realm. Fed-Ex on the other hand is the model of a 2.0 company. At every juncture, from the web site to the phone call I made to them I'm presented with options about how I choose to get information. I don't spend a long time guessing what the secret code is to get them to give me the information I want. When I walk away with the information I need they call back to give me a little more.

In a post on barriers in libraries, Michael Stephens had several definitions of what Library 2.0 means. Common to each of these definitions is that the 2.0 world is about the user. The rise of the world wide web certainly makes providing information to users easier. It is possible to reach into corners of the globe not dreamed of a decade ago. Widespread high-speed internet access grants people from large cities and small villages access to resources. All of this technology and innovation, however, is secondary to the primary concern -- the user. At its core Library 2.0 boils down to meeting the user where they are. The 1.0 business model for libraries and doctors offices says information is for the learned few: it is tightly held and kept to the inner circle. Those who dare to approach the inner sanctum must learn its ways. Library 2.0 is a way of turning that inside out. It starts with the questions "Where are the users?", "How can we take information to the users?", and "What information would assist the users?" Library 2.0 is the user's library instead of the librarian's library. Fortunately, a great many gifted librarians get the idea and will help us get there.