The article, Revenge of the Experts from Newsweek mentions that user generated content is dead. The power of the people is now becoming the power of the experts. There has been a demand for more reliable and authoritative information on the web, "some of the same entrepreneurs that funded the user-generated revolution are paying professionals to edit and produce online content." Google, BigThink.com, Mahalo, About.com are all companies that have begun to hire experts for their products, and it isn't surprising that they are looking at ways they can charge for it, whether it is through subscription fees or ad revenue.

Don't despair if you just watched MLA's webcast which was primarily all about the social networking applications that help make user generated content. I think this article reflects a little bit of the balancing out of the web. Having the web represent one extreme or another is never a good thing. Too much user generated content makes it difficult for people to slog through the web to find decent unbiased authoritative information. Too much expert information can make it difficult to find unique perspectives and voices on topics. Chocolate comes to my mind. A little bit of chocolate here and there is yummy and makes you happy. Too much chocolate and you have to do an extra work out to fit in your clothes. Too little chocolate makes you crave it that much more when you have had a really bad day or when you just want something sweet for desert after your healthy lunch salad.

I like what Glenn Reynolds says in the Newsweek article, "There's always a Big New Thing, but the old Big New Thing doesn't really go away. It becomes just another layer—like we're building an onion from the inside out." User generated content won't die, it will just be layered to the next thing. I think librarians using these applications represents that type of onion building. Take for example adding user tagging to the library catalog. Nobody wants to get rid of MeSH or LC, that is the expert information within there. Adding the user generated tagging is an additional access point through which people can find material. They can find it through the expert method (LC or MeSH) or through the power of the masses (tagging). Another perfect example is the Citadel's Institutional Author Wiki. The Citadel began tracking institutional authors and their publications.

So, if this whole web 2.0 thing has got you freaking out, don't worry. Think of it as building on to your already good services and resources to make them even better. Mesh (no pun intended) the user generated content with expert content. Build the onion.