Months ago I signed up for RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) to a number of "library blogs" that seemed to have gained a following.

I did this for a friend and also for myself. I found that I was flooded with too many blogs and in reality, only made time to read a few, of which I found that about 50% of them were worth my time. (not a low percentage but I was overwhelmed by what I felt I needed to read versus what I wanted to and then what I decided to read: frustration more than fulfillment was the result).

Therefore, Web. 2.0 and Library 2.0 (or 1.2-1.9 as may be the case for many libraries) seem to be providing so much for users in order to provide them with "rich experiences" of interaction and socialization.

But (and this is not to be accepted as a bad thing), users typically, in my opinion, browse for things of interest, click and scan for something engaging, and then interact if relevant before moving on to a different place or site, or life activity.

Therefore (if you are still reading this and have not clicked away to something more interesting, which, I would applaud), if we can accept that library people and our libraries collectively are only a utility to users (like electric, gas and water companies) and not the main part of their lives, then we will not be offended if users do not give much thought to what we put on our library pages and in our libraries as long as it works in relative conformity to what they are experiencing elsewhere.

Tomi E.