Innovation in agricultural digital library services based on Web 2.0

Abstract

After several years of development, agricultural digital libraries in China have made great achievements in the acquisition and accessibility of documentation and information. However, many of their services focus on the indexing and transfer of information, based on a service concept as an agricultural information provider. As internet technology evolves from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the manner in which information is produced, organised, and disseminated has changed. User behaviour and their modes of using information are also changing. In this paper, we briefly introduce the principle and the operating model of Web 2.0 and go onto analyse the relationship between Web 2.0 and digital library technologies. After analysing some limitations with existing library services, we suggest that Web 2.0 be used in agricultural digital libraries to improve services, focusing on the user and on how to meet their needs. © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.