Whether or not you are comfortable with the term Library 2.0, it does have some useful ideas to offer your library.

Here’s ten Library 2.0 resolutions to add to your list for 2008.

1. Find out more about your users.

It all starts with them. So many new tools, offering so much new promise – how do we know what to research, let alone implement? The answer is different for each library and depends on the preference of the users.

What’s the mission of your parent organisation? How many of your users have broadband? What’s the age and education level of your users? How are they different to people served by other libraries? What do they think of your existing services? What else would they like to see?

2. Find out about you non-users.

Not just any non-users, but people in your designated client group who do not use your services. Try conducting a non-user survey. Why don’t they use you? Can new web tools help those challenged by disability, time or distance? Are they technological “have-nots”? Can you do more to help this group?

3. Look at some role models

Check out Library Success: A Best Practices wiki. Check out the Ann Arbor District Library. Look at worldcat.org.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for just two of the following library blogs and resolve to read every post for a month:

• Jessamyn West’s librarian.net
• Michael Stephen’s Tame the Web
• Steve Cohen’s Library Stuff
• Stephen Abram’s Stephen’s Lighthouse
• Jude O’Connell’s Hey Jude
• Laura Cohen’s Library 2.0 : an academic’s perspective
• American Library Association’s Techsource blog
• Karen Schneider’s Free Range Librarian
• Sarah Houghton-Jan’s Librarian in Black
• Ellysa Kroski’s iLibrarian
• the personal blogs of the Thali , the group of librarians who administer this blog.
• ..or listen to the weekly podcast of library related issues, Uncontrolled Vocabulary .

4. Run classes in new tech tools….for other library staff or your users.

Best way to learn is to teach. If you’ve done a Learning 2.0 / 23 Things program, try sharing what you learned with your colleagues or users. How about a weekly get together where staff members from all levels take it in turn to show a different tool?

5. Create your own blog.

…about professional issues that interest you. It may be government policy, new cataloguing standards, library furniture, storytelling tricks. You get to clarify your thoughts, do a bit of research, share your passion and knowledge and take part in a conversation. Two sites to start at are blogger and wordpress.com .

6. Think about the semantic web.

At least read a few definitions. Like this one in Wikipedia., Semantic Web. Or Tim Berners -Lee’s 2001 article in Scientific American, the Semantic Web . Or Chapter 6 (The Sociosemantic Web) of Peter Morville’s book, Ambient Findability: What we Find Changes Who We Become. Or subscribe to the blog about the Semantic Web and librarianship, Semantic Library .

As I understand it, it involves automatically adding extra rich metadata to things online so that a computer can use the extra information to do the kinds of sifting that once could only be done by people. Sort of like an automatic librarian adding subject tags, locations and people information to an online record. For example, if I wanted to buy a car, I could tell my PC the features, price range and location I wanted and it would scour the ‘net and bring back a shortlist.

7. Put hardware on your radar

Do you know about the different devices and gizmoes your users use to access information? Is your building set up for wireless access? What is your library web site like on a PDA? a mobile phone? a screen reader for the visually impaired? Can you show a client how to download a podcast to their MP3 player.

Have you thought about the impact on eBooks or print books of tablet PCs ? How about the One Laptop Per Child’s XO PC program? Portable book readers like Amazon’s kindle, Sony’s Portable Reader or the iLiad ?

8. Look at your physical space

Is it set up for your users or your staff? Do the signs make sense to non-librarians? Is your library a central, well-respected, social hub of your community or organisation? Does it provide welcoming furnishings and space for people to collaborate?

What would you see if you took Ryan Deschamp’s advice and took a walk through your building pretending you weren’t a librarian?

9. Review Reference

Is your prime floor space taken up by a once-great reference collection that is out-of-date, duplicates resources available online and gets fewer visitors than other areas that are not so easily accessible?

Does the layout and staffing of your reference desk give users the impression that they need to to have a Very Important and Serious question before they approach and “waste the librarians’ time?”.

Can users get help via Instant Messaging using their own preferred chat client?

Do reference staff understand that their job is not to “find the answer”, but , as Stephen Abram says , to “improve the quality of the question”.

Do reference staff understand how to find information contained in podcasts, on video sharing sites and in online social networks ?

10. Explore, discover, play.

Shake off the “training wheels culture” and find your own best path to learn what you need to serve your users better.