Enterprise 2.0 in a Digital Library: Implementations and Outcomes

Introduction

Collaboration and communication is always technology dependant. A radical change in communication technology occurs rarely, and when it does, it presents organizations with great opportunity to improve their business performance, but also poses a great risk of losing competitive advantage if they do not implement these new technologies in time frame defined by the competition. Sometime such a radical change can bring new players into an industry creating unexpected competition. All of this happened during the last few years with the rise of Web 2.0 technologies. The industry of information creation with librarianship as one of its more prominent sectors is one in which Web 2.0 technologies did create unexpected competition empowering users and making them information creators by placing at their disposal abundant data resources. Organizations from investment intensive industries have started to implement Web 2.0 technologies in order to foster communication and collaboration both with users and among employees. Similarly to other management concepts, this practice was soon described and defined theoretically and the pace of the implementation surged. Today various concepts describe implementation of Web 2.0 technologies for purposes of improvement of communication and collaboration with users, Banking 2.0, Government 2.0, and Education 2.0 are some of the more prominent examples. In librarianship concept of Library 2.0 is well defined and described. Usage of Web 2.0 technologies for business purposes in libraries is not so well described and this chapter aims at filling a part of this blank.

In a complex and fast changing environment in order to survive businesses need to adapt. Non-profit nature and government related funding have placed libraries in somewhat comfortable position. This has been compromised by the financial crisis and globalization processes. The rising competition has often eluded definitions given by librarians themselves. The pace of Web 2.0 development suggests that in the few years’ time enough Internet users will have a know how to retrieve and post online almost every book that was ever printed. Is copyright enough of an obstacle to make people turn to libraries again in such a situation? Libraries must face such challenges and adapt in order to survive. In addition, even if most of library managers do not feel the pressure yet, they should act now, for other industries examples thought us that it is about the pace of the change and not about the level of change achieved.

Building on the research conducted in Serbian libraries in 2007 and 2009 and on the ongoing research of European libraries, various aspects of Enterprise 2.0 implementation in the library environment will be presented as well as outcomes evaluation strategies and methods. Author’s theory on relationship between intrapreneurship and Enterprise 2.0 implementation is described. This relationship is of utmost importance for efficient implementation of new technologies in libraries. Enterprise 2.0 implementation via intrapreneurship is discussed on basis of previously published theory, data collected by author, and the best practices cases of various European libraries.

Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurial skills and approaches within an organization applied by employees. This concept is very well studied and described in many industries, but librarianship theory almost never deals with cases of intrarpeneurship in libraries though one might met them very often. Therefore any application of this concept in libraries so far has been based on intuitive decision making by intrapreneurs and managers alike.

Enterprise 2.0 describes the use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches by organizations in order to foster internal functions e.g. communication, collaboration, innovativeness. In libraries this concept describes the use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians for communication and collaboration with other librarians. It should not be confused with user oriented implementation of Web 2.0 tools, i.e. Library 2.0. Librarianship theory is lagging behind the practice in this field too. Data presented show that many libraries have already implemented Enterprise 2.0, while almost no mention of this can be found in theory on libraries.

Both concepts are of utmost importance for digital libraries. By dealing with them and relationship that exist between them chapter adds missing pieces to contemporary librarianship theory. Specific contribution of the chapter is that it presents solution to the specific and growing problem of declining efficiency in implementation of new technology solutions in libraries. Libraries seems to leg behind in the race to implementation new technologies arising in the fast changing ICT field. Chapter looks into possible solutions for this.