2 phone 3 T h I N G_McElman_070716_2375 S/Southern Pawn Shop cropped - yellow tiled

Friday, February 1, 2008

Thing#2 - Library 2.0

After reading all the posts and documents, I'm not really sure what to think about Library 2.0. I can see why it's important that we are aware of the new technologies, but I'm not sure how much public is interested in all this. Yes, maybe the young, technologically hip are ready to plunge into these new technologies, but is the general public?

Mostly, the people I see and help every day are not interested in learning new technologies. They just have a question and want an answer as soon as possible. In general, the 8o year old who needs to print a boarding pass but doesn't have any idea how to use a computer just wants me to say I'll print it out for him. He doesn't want to learn how to use a computer, or any other technology. He just wants to get a boarding pass (which the airline used to issue to him when he bought his ticket with no effort on his part.)

Possibly, some of these new technologies will help me find the answers faster for some questions,
but to take full advantage of them, you have to be willing to spend a great deal of time on the computer. I don't know if I have the time or the interest, and I don't think that a great majority of customers want to spend time learning it. Perhaps in another generation ot two, when everyone has grown up with technology from day 1 and learns it all when they are very young, it will seem more feasible.

The ideas may be great, but it is becoming more and more difficult to simply find a book that has the answer a person is looking for and give it to them. Telling someone they can look it up on one of our databases is not always the most helpful answer...

(I think I'm still a Library 1.0 person)

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