Get over it

Great, great post by Michael Stephens on the ALA Tech Source blog. Here's just a blurb:

"Then Maney noted the importance of adopting and using the tools that WORK for the institution. This is the evaluation piece that Casey and Savistinuk made part of their original definition of Library 2.0:

It is a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful change, inviting user participation in the creation of both the physical and the virtual services they want, supported by consistently evaluating services.

Maney's take was "lonely is bad." If that blog, discussion forum, IM service, etc is unused -- thus lonely -- take it down and focus on something else that might better suit the institution. Monitoring usage, hits, comments all come into play here. "We can't do it all," she said -- to applause from john and I, and several folks in the audience. "Pick and choose the ones you want to try." I was happy to hear this coming from someone in the trenches of practice -- I've been addressing the same issues in my recent talks. So are some incredible library thinkers in Australia."

I only had a few minutes to read and link before work but will follow up later. I was just on the phone with a friend yesterday talking about this very thing. I'm pulling together my presentation for CIL and it's the same discussion over and over. Marketing is always about experimenting. We get information, try ideas, evaluate, then ask for input again... the area I'm writing about for CIL takes it a bit further in the fact that 2.0 isn't only about what we create but about interactivity and socializing and that can mean visiting blogs, joining networks sometimes even more so than creating our own. What worked in traditional venues often does apply with the web in may ways. Of course, with a twist. Got to go- but was so excited to see this post that I had to write.