Going Local

I found the information at CIL on going local most interesting. Charles Lyons from the University at Buffalo talked about opportunities for libraries to enter local information using Library 2.0 applications. This is an area where I believe libraries can shine.

According to the presentation, the internet makes it easy so sip globally, but so far not locally. Although Google Local is adding in more local search results, and people can find local news using a Google News advanced search, the local web is primarily
user-generated, participatory, amateur, civic, grassroots, citizen’s journalism. The local web gives knowledgeable people a voice. (I would say it also gives unknowledgeable people a voice as well, but that's a topic for a different posting).
With information about neighborhoods, streets, buildings, and communities, the local web is bringing a sense of place to the internet.

Are libraries helping to bring a sense of place to the Internet? Our key strengths are local history, and genealogy, as well as providers of community information. However, there are opportunites for libraries to become more local. We need to become expert users of local resources, raise awareness and assist the community in using them, broaden the scope of local data, become active participants in community-focused resources, and create our own local resources. We need to become experts at using Yahoo local, Google maps, and Ask city. Place and community blogging is another opportunity to go local. Check out the Darien Community Matters blog.

This sounds like a good subject for a workshop, don't you think? For more information, check out Charles Lyons Dewey&Main blog.