Yesterday I received a very exciting mail from our University Library’s manager, Nieves Taranco. The mail was a bitext, because Deusto is an officially bilingual institution, and official mails should always be Spanish-Basque bimails (i.e. bilingual mails). For those who understand Spanish 😉 I’ll reproduce some fragments below.

The message anounced the imminent move of all Library contents from the old building to the new one, designed by Rafael Moneo, which is almost ready at the other side of river Nervión. The new construction promises many new opportunities, not only because of the tremendous conditions it exhibits in terms of space and technical equipment, but because Nieves in particular, and University leaders at large aim at making the new site a true CRAI (Learning and Research Resource Centre, by the way a recent widespread trend, eg UPF’s).

The acronym does not sound very appealing, and reminds me of a well known supercomputer brand (CRAY). I really prefer the more classical name “Library”, or “Biblioteca” in our case. So better than CRAI I’ll like to see it as Deusto’s new Biblioteca 2.0 (despite Ismael El-Qudsi or Antonio Fumero disqualifying 2.0 vogues – trendy people tend to dislike trends when they become too popular).

I have to say that today am particularly excited because, only one day after Nieves’ mail, I’ve met Lorena Fernández and Iñaki Fuertes (our Web 2.0 guru, the former, and the head of the University’s Computing Service, the latter) and have warranted of plans to convert the new place into a true 2.0 library space. They have invited me to join a brain storming session planned for the weeks after the August vacation.

I cannot wait, so here are some of the things I believe should be combined into an integrated virtual working space:

• Learning meterials from faculty scholars (SCORM and LOM formats)
• Bibliographic searching tools: Scholar, CiteSeer, OAIster, Dialnet (OAI-PMH and other harvesting protocols)
• Students and library staff blog and wiki syndication, mainly on bibliographic resoures (RSS)
• Bookmark and social reference managment tools (del.icio.us, myLibraryThing, Wikindx, etc.)
• Communication channels: email, lists/groups, messenger, social networks (RSS, FOAF)

These ideas have to be more carefully analysed and weighted, but in my oppinion are among the most obvious ingredients for the desired learning resource centre. More proposals, please!

Some recommended references

Library 2.0. (2008, June 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:56, July 10, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Library_2.0&oldid=220592582

Laura Cohen (2006, November 8). A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/2006/11/a_librarians_20_manifesto.html

From the mail by Nieves Taranco:

La nueva Biblioteca reunirá en su nueva sede toda la colección bibliográfica, unos 900.000 volúmenes, de los que más de 400.000 son monografías; 11.000 títulos de publicaciones periódicas, de las que cerca de 5.000 son “vivas” (en curso de recepción); el Fondo Antiguo e Histórico formado por unos 60.000 volúmenes, con obras impresas desde el siglo XIV al XIX., etc.

Liburutegi berriaren egoitza berrian bilduma bibliografiko guztia jasoko da, ia 900.000 bolumen, euretatik 400.000 monografiak; aldizkako argitalpenen 11.000 izenburu, euretatik 5.000 “biziak” (oraindik ere hartzen direnak); Antzinako Funtsa eta Funts Historikoa, 60.000 bolumenekin, XIV. eta XIX. mendeen artean inprimatutako lanekin, etab.