On one side of the room, we've got Sarah Clark's two posts on the "dark side" of Library 2.0:

The Dark Side of Library 2.0, Part 1: "It's the Patron, Stupid!"

The Dark Side of Library 2.0, Part 2: new bridges...new divides?

On the other side of the room, we've got Laura Cohen's rebuttal to Sarah's posts:

Is There a "Dark Side" to Library 2.0?

Laura's overall argument is that while Sarah raises some good points, her concerns really have nothing to do with Library 2.0.

Not to sound wishy-washy, but I think both of them make important points. In the end, I'm inclined to agree with Laura that the "dark side" Sarah's worried about isn't really a dark side to Library 2.0. But I'm eager to hear what other people think about this. Is there a "dark side" to L2.0? If there is, is it what Sarah's writing about?

Looks like the Maplewood library won't be closing its doors after all. At least until the regular closing time. And the community is stepping up to help out, which is a good thing.

1. Look at these three posts in which librarian bloggers confess that they avoid their local public libraries because the library is an unfriendly, difficult to use place.

2. Read this article about how the Maplewood Memorial Library in Maplewood, NJ, will be closing its doors from 2:45-5 on weekdays because they feel a certain group of users (in this case, teens) are uncontrollable, making the library a place that is unfriendly and difficult to use. Also read these posts (and comments) on Jessamyn's and our own Jessica's blogs. (Edit: Also read this Library Crunch post on Maplewood and the problem of unruly teens.)

3. Discuss.

Jessica had some obvious problems switching this blog from the old Blogger to the new Blogger Beta. She's not the only one who has blogged about Blogger Beta problems.

Now, I'm a big fan of the concept of "beta is forever," which has become one of the defining principles of Library 2.0. But releasing a product or service in beta that causes more frustrations, and more frustrated public blog posts, doesn't do anyone much good. I'm not saying everything has to work perfectly, but there should be more positives than negatives. When Firefox 2 came out, there were some problems (heck, my own upgrade on our family computer went much less than smoothly, making me a very cranky and unhappy camper), but in general, the responses I saw to it (and my own overall feelings about it) were positive.

I've really tried to apply "beta is forever" and good beta practices a part of my regular work at my library. When we're planning new programs and services and hammering out all of the details, I think it's important to keep in mind, and the remind everyone else, that what we present to the public doesn't have to be perfect, the final product. But it does have to be good, and we shouldn't put something out that's half-assed and a dollar short.

What does everyone else think about "beta is forever"? In what ways have you (or could you) apply it to your regular work? In what way can it be practically applied to librarianship in general? And in what ways is it a bad idea?

EDIT: In trying to set up "labels" for this post, I got a bunch of error messages that basically tell me the new Blogger doesn't handle tagging all that well.