Wired has a nice writeup today on the Learning 2.0 project developed by Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County...

Recognizing that librarians need to know how to participate in the new media mix if libraries are to remain relevant, Blowers challenged her 550 staffers to become more web savvy. Using free web tools, she designed the program and gave staff members three months to do 23 things.

They created blogs and podcasts, tried out Flickr, set up RSS feeds, learned about wikis, uploaded video to YouTube, played with image generators and Rollyo, and explored Technorati, tagging and folksonomies.

If the Learning 2.0 program interests you, be sure to check out Five Weeks to a Social Library also. It's a course developed last fall by Meredith Farkas, Michelle Boule, Karen Coombs, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Ellyssa Kroski, and Dorothea Salo...

Five Weeks to a Social Library is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. It was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software.

The actual course wrapped up earlier this month. Readings and screencasts are available on the site.

[Wired] Public Library Geeks Take Web 2.0 to the Stacks