I'm back from vacation and going through that "breaking in" period where you try to remember what exactly we're doing here! With a book discussion and a reference workshop due in the next week I'm definitely thinking the "play to learn" needs to be on the back burner for a few more days.
Still, I feel guilty when I don't check in each week to see what's happening with my co-workers on their way to being techno-geniuses. I have to tell you, in talking with friends and hearing that most of them still don't have time to do these weekly projects at work but rather, must do them at home on their own time, I still have reservations about the efficacy of the program. It seems that we are adding to the techno-stress of our staff rather than relieving them of the burden of not understanding what our patrons are facing.
Of course, here at SC most of our patrons still need to be walked through Word or hand carried to their e-mail provider, so Web 2.0 is like another planet to them. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm for these new technologies when we deal with patrons who pride themselves on their Luddite tendencies!
I've read through the blogs for week 7 and especially enjoyed Michael Stephens. He seems to have a more balanced philosophy of Web 2.0 and its impact on libraries. While I totally agree that we've got to be 10 steps ahead of our customers all the time to remain relevant (which is why I SO see the importance of making Chat Reference a permanent part of our reference delivery service), I still envision the library as a haven for the non-techies who come to us to learn language skills, participate in innovative programming, or introduce their kids to books and the glory of words. Let's not forget these people in our drive to be wired.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I totally agree. While we strive to make technology available and ourselves savvy enough to be able to provide both bibliographic instruction and tech support we must never lose sight of the fact that many patrons come to the library to be with people. They want to be known by someone. They can afford a newspaper from a corner box or Publix or even have it delivered, but they read it here. They want to be acknowledged, to say, "it's hot out." No kidding, we live in Florida. It's contact. We all crave contact. When libraries go mostly automated, the staff suffers because they lose contact and only deal with problems (e.g. malfunctions, card blocks, fines, etc.). We are here for the people and they come for us, no matter how many .0s we evolve into.
Post a Comment