Real World Tech Chad Boeninger “may be the most effective technology librarian I've ever met,” says Char Booth, e-learning librarian, University of California at Berkeley (and 2008 Mover & Shaker). This effectiveness stems from practical implementations of Library 2.0 technology, ranging from wikis to podcast library tours. Librarians' relevance, says Boeninger, depends on moving “into our users' spaces.” In academic libraries, this includes IM, texting, and Facebook, which Boeninger incorporates—and encourages others to use—“to put a more human face on the library.”
In 2005, Boeninger created one of the first wiki-based subject guides, the Ohio University BizWiki, which organizes research guides and keeps content fresh. While competition stymied expectations of student/faculty contributions, they appreciate its resources; Boeninger calls it “a huge success.”
In presentations on projects like BizWiki, Boeninger doesn't “show 2.0 technologies just because they're cool”; he emphasizes real-world examples for others to emulate. Boeninger now targets technologies to make librarians mobile, such as forwarding AIM messages to a cell phone and texting back quick answers. “I'd like to see librarians working from home, coffee shops, bookstores, student centers, the college green,” he says—and he is beginning the work toward that.
