Graduate students are learning about the future of public libraries as they help to build that future in courses from the School of Library & Information Studies at The Florida State University. In classes such as “Intro to Information Services” and “Virtual Reference Environments,” students are learning first-hand how new online technologies are transforming libraries.

“Our students are exploring how libraries can help people using digital reference and Web 2.0 technologies: wikis, blogs, social networks, podcasting, and virtual worlds,” said Dr. Lorri Mon, assistant professor at the School of Library & Information Studies. “By doing real world coursework, they are being prepared with the library skills needed for today’s workforce.”

“Real world coursework” refers to the work that Florida State graduate students have been doing for the Internet Public Library (IPL), an online public library that also functions as an educational environment for library and information studies students. Students in FSU’s “Introduction to Information Services” courses answer library reference questions from patrons throughout the world at the IPL’s Ask an ipl2 Libraria service.

Web 2.0 technologies are Web-based applications that are collaborative and interactive. Through the process of information sharing and interactions with patrons, libraries are becoming more participatory and user-centered. Students in Mon’s “Virtual Reference Environments” courses have worked as IPL librarians, reference administrators, and Web 2.0 managers. They used Web 2.0 technologies to create and manage IPL accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, MySpace, and the virtual world of Second Life.

Florida State University faculty, staff and graduate students also worked on IPL’s 15 Things a free online learning tool that teaches fifteen Web 2.0 technologies. The last of the “15 Things” will be launched by March 15, 2010, the fifteenth birthday of the IPL.

The use of Web 2.0 technologies has contributed to the expansion of audiences for the Internet Public Library. In January 2010, it merged its resources with the Librarian’s Internet Index (LII), a publicly-funded information Web site and newsletter, to form the Web site ipl2: information you can trust.

VITUAL EDUCATION. Above, avatars of School of Library & Information Studies graduate students in Mon’s 2009 “Virtual Reference Environments” course pose for a class photo in the virtual world of Second Life. Below, a virtual world representation of the IPL’s 15 Things, an IPL2 project created in collaboration with FSU faculty, staff and students.