And with Thing #15: Presentations go social, it's time for SlideShare. The value of this thing is also quite obvious. I need no convincing.
If nothing else, seeing a lineup of slideshows on this site convinced me of the need to make more interesting title slides. Mine are boring, plain text on a white background. Looked great projected onto an uneven cinderblock wall. Not so great on the web.
I'm sorry that I have no audio track to sync with my slides. If I had known about SlideShare before I did my presentations, I would have probably gone to the effort of borrowing equipment that would have let me record one of my rehearsals, so I could add it.
My user name on SlideShare is akroeger, and I uploaded two presentations from last year. I really love how the notes I attached to each slide display below the presentation. That way, the lack of audio isn't a big deal, as the full text of my presentation is fully accessible without any special action on the viewer's part. I am not so thrilled, however, with the way paragraph breaks are stripped and bullets become garbled in the slide notes, turning a neat, orderly display into a massive, unreadable brick of text. But that's a relatively minor quibble.
I do have one not-so-minor quibble. I revised my slideshows to fix the notes so they'd display better. When I replaced the slideshows, however, SlideShare still displayed and played the old versions with the garbled notes. Even renaming the files before replacing them didn't work. (Yes, I did refresh the page.) I had to entirely delete the original presentations, then upload them anew. They're the way I want them now, but it shouldn't have been that much trouble.
Below is a presentation I did at last year's TSRT Spring Meeting. You'll have to go to SlideShare directly to see the notes.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What Business Are Libraries In?
Stepping away from the 23 Things for a moment, I want to point you to a really interesting post on Designing Better Libraries: "People Don’t Go To Libraries For Information . . . They Go There Because . . ."
After talking a bit about companies that failed because they misunderstood what business they were really in, they come around to libraries. "[L]ibraries think they are in the information business but they are really in the education or learning business."
Food for thought.
After talking a bit about companies that failed because they misunderstood what business they were really in, they come around to libraries. "[L]ibraries think they are in the information business but they are really in the education or learning business."
Food for thought.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thing #14: Mmm, Delicious
Thing #14: Tagging & social bookmarking in Delicious. Woo! An easy one! I've already been on Delicious for a couple of months, and I love it! I loved it from the get-go, because it's usefulness is so blazingly obvious. I haven't gotten much into the social aspects of it yet, but I really love being able to annotate each bookmark. Further, even though I was always meticulous about keeping my bookmarks well organized into folders and subfolders, tagging them is superior in every way--easier to maintain, easier to search. Also, it's nice to be able to access my bookmarks when I'm away from home.
My Delicious user name is LunaMurphy. Keep in mind that I use Delicious strictly my personal bookmarks, so you won't see a lot of library-related entries. At work, we have a social bookmarking widget integrated into our staff wiki, so if I want to share bookmarks with my coworkers, I do it there. That wiki and those bookmarks are not publicly available, so I can't show you. It would be nice to share those more widely, though.
I love what the Holdridge Area Public Library has done with their tag cloud. That is an awesome way to share bookmarks with patrons. I imagine their subject specialists select which websites to add. It probably requires, if not a formal collection development policy, at least a similar ethos to selecting physical materials for the collection. What a great way to help patrons find the best stuff on the web without casting into the wide sea of Google.
My Delicious user name is LunaMurphy. Keep in mind that I use Delicious strictly my personal bookmarks, so you won't see a lot of library-related entries. At work, we have a social bookmarking widget integrated into our staff wiki, so if I want to share bookmarks with my coworkers, I do it there. That wiki and those bookmarks are not publicly available, so I can't show you. It would be nice to share those more widely, though.
I love what the Holdridge Area Public Library has done with their tag cloud. That is an awesome way to share bookmarks with patrons. I imagine their subject specialists select which websites to add. It probably requires, if not a formal collection development policy, at least a similar ethos to selecting physical materials for the collection. What a great way to help patrons find the best stuff on the web without casting into the wide sea of Google.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thing #13: Twitter
All right, I've made it to the dreaded Thing #13: What are you doing?
One of the reasons I signed on to Nebraska Learns 2.0 was to force myself to explore certain social technologies that I have been deliberately avoiding. Twitter is one of those things.
I've known about Twitter for a while. I understand it, but it just never appealed to me. I definitely see the value of Twitter for libraries and businesses. Libraries can send out Tweets like, "Closed on Monday for the holiday," or "We now have Kindles available for checkout!" Businesses can send out, "Big sale on Tuesday. 20% off all linens," or "Nintendo Wii back in stock!" That totally makes sense to me.
For personal use, though, I have never seen the appeal. My life simply isn't that interesting. I don't see why anyone would care what I'm doing. Big things, I can post on my blog. But come on, look at the average length of posts in both of my blogs. Do you think I'm capable of saying anything to my satisfaction in 140 characters or less? Ha! Also, I like my privacy. I don't necessarily want people to know what I'm doing all the time. Thirdly, if I actually AM doing something interesting, the last thing I want to do is stop, go to a computer or get out my cell phone, and type a sentence or two.
I found myself nodding in agreement with most of what Kathy Sierra said in the Creating Passionate Users post "Is Twitter TOO good?" (which I heard about from Learning As I Go). Especially noteworthy is the Twitter Curve graph.
When I searched Twitter for things of potential interest, I found unomaha and decided to follow their Tweets so I can keep up with campus events. Otherwise, I saw a few interesting events happening around Omaha, mixed in with a series of Tweets that told a tale of a jilted lover worthy of a soap opera. I also found that a lot of other people are playing the same video game I am. (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, if you must know.)
So, to answer the three questions about Thing #13:
1. Did you like micro-blogging?
So far, no. But I'm willing to give it some time to see if I catch the bug.
2. How could libraries use Twitter?
It can be another venue for news and announcements, supplementing rather than replacing existing venues. Really, it's good to send out announcements in as many formats as possible, so patrons can receive them however they prefer. Twitter could also be good for notification of interesting new books, media, and collections; receiving and responding to reference questions; and promoting new services and events.
3. How could you use Twitter?
The 140 character limit might be good for me, as it forces me to carefully consider every word that goes into a sentence. Given my natural tendency toward prolixity, some practice in succinct wordsmithing could be helpful.
I'll keep Tweeting for a few days and report back if my opinions change. My Twitter user name is LunaMurphy, if you want to look in on me.
One of the reasons I signed on to Nebraska Learns 2.0 was to force myself to explore certain social technologies that I have been deliberately avoiding. Twitter is one of those things.
I've known about Twitter for a while. I understand it, but it just never appealed to me. I definitely see the value of Twitter for libraries and businesses. Libraries can send out Tweets like, "Closed on Monday for the holiday," or "We now have Kindles available for checkout!" Businesses can send out, "Big sale on Tuesday. 20% off all linens," or "Nintendo Wii back in stock!" That totally makes sense to me.
For personal use, though, I have never seen the appeal. My life simply isn't that interesting. I don't see why anyone would care what I'm doing. Big things, I can post on my blog. But come on, look at the average length of posts in both of my blogs. Do you think I'm capable of saying anything to my satisfaction in 140 characters or less? Ha! Also, I like my privacy. I don't necessarily want people to know what I'm doing all the time. Thirdly, if I actually AM doing something interesting, the last thing I want to do is stop, go to a computer or get out my cell phone, and type a sentence or two.
I found myself nodding in agreement with most of what Kathy Sierra said in the Creating Passionate Users post "Is Twitter TOO good?" (which I heard about from Learning As I Go). Especially noteworthy is the Twitter Curve graph.
When I searched Twitter for things of potential interest, I found unomaha and decided to follow their Tweets so I can keep up with campus events. Otherwise, I saw a few interesting events happening around Omaha, mixed in with a series of Tweets that told a tale of a jilted lover worthy of a soap opera. I also found that a lot of other people are playing the same video game I am. (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, if you must know.)
So, to answer the three questions about Thing #13:
1. Did you like micro-blogging?
So far, no. But I'm willing to give it some time to see if I catch the bug.
2. How could libraries use Twitter?
It can be another venue for news and announcements, supplementing rather than replacing existing venues. Really, it's good to send out announcements in as many formats as possible, so patrons can receive them however they prefer. Twitter could also be good for notification of interesting new books, media, and collections; receiving and responding to reference questions; and promoting new services and events.
3. How could you use Twitter?
The 140 character limit might be good for me, as it forces me to carefully consider every word that goes into a sentence. Given my natural tendency toward prolixity, some practice in succinct wordsmithing could be helpful.
I'll keep Tweeting for a few days and report back if my opinions change. My Twitter user name is LunaMurphy, if you want to look in on me.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Thing#12
Moving along at a nice clip, though still far from caught up, I've reached Thing #12: A thing about LibraryThing.
Of course, it's impossible to work in a library and not know about LibraryThing. It is one of the hot topics in libraries right now. My library, the Criss Library at UNO, uses the tags from LibraryThing for Libraries in our catalog. Look at the title Freakonomics to see an example. (Scroll down to the bottom of the record for the tags.)
I haven't started a LibraryThing account before now because I didn't really see the need for it in my personal life. It may seem surprising that as much as I love cataloging, I haven't cataloged my home library. But I do have my collections divided by subject, and I have no trouble finding anything whenever I want it. So my system works for me. Besides, LibraryThing has a fee if you want to catalog more than 200 books, and I'd go way over that.
But this exercise got me to thinking that LibraryThing can be used for many things. So I decided to use it to keep track of books I've borrowed from friends or libraries--things I've read and enjoyed enough that I might want to look it up again sometime, but which I do not actually own. I am not going to record books I disliked and wouldn't read again or books I loved so very much that I immediately ran out and bought my own copy so I'd always have it on hand (after all, those are on my shelves for me to see anytime). And, unfortunately, I'm not going to include the many, many books I really liked but have forgotten the titles of. Those are just gone forever. But with LibraryThing, maybe I can keep that problem from happening again.
And maybe later I may use it to keep track of books I'm interested in checking out later, instead of that five-page Word document I've got them all listed in.
I really only intended to add about ten books today, but once you start, it's hard to stop! I ended up adding thirty. My username is LunaMurphy, if you'd like to see my list.
I wasn't as happy with searching in LibraryThing. I searched for The Story of the Stone, an exact title, and it came back with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as the first hit, and the book I was looking for nowhere on the first five pages. It wouldn't do an exact phrase search with quotation marks, either. I went over to Amazon and found it on the first page (even though it still wasn't the first entry). Then I went back to LibraryThing with the author's name and found it more easily. For several of my books, I had to go to my library's catalog or to Amazon to get enough information to find it in LibraryThing.
I do, however, like that there is something resembling authority control on the tags. I tagged my books "do not own," and when connecting to other users, that tag is rendered "unowned." The LibraryThing tag info for "unowned" says, "Includes: unowned, @unowned, DoNotOwn, Don'tOwn, Don’tOwn, _NOT.OWNED, do no own, do not have, do not own, don't own, dont have, dont own, not owned, not-own, not-owned, notowned." Nice way to round up similar tags without forcing people to use a controlled vocabulary.
A side observation: LibraryThing is not afraid to try things that are helpful to readers but harmful to bookstores, things you'll never see from Amazon. Check out LibraryThing's Unsuggester. It's the antithesis of the typical "If you liked X, you might also like Y" recommendation system. Unsuggester offers the equally useful counter, "If you liked X, you'll probably hate Z." What better way to say, "That book sucked," than by saving other readers the pain of suffering through it?
Of course, it's impossible to work in a library and not know about LibraryThing. It is one of the hot topics in libraries right now. My library, the Criss Library at UNO, uses the tags from LibraryThing for Libraries in our catalog. Look at the title Freakonomics to see an example. (Scroll down to the bottom of the record for the tags.)
I haven't started a LibraryThing account before now because I didn't really see the need for it in my personal life. It may seem surprising that as much as I love cataloging, I haven't cataloged my home library. But I do have my collections divided by subject, and I have no trouble finding anything whenever I want it. So my system works for me. Besides, LibraryThing has a fee if you want to catalog more than 200 books, and I'd go way over that.
But this exercise got me to thinking that LibraryThing can be used for many things. So I decided to use it to keep track of books I've borrowed from friends or libraries--things I've read and enjoyed enough that I might want to look it up again sometime, but which I do not actually own. I am not going to record books I disliked and wouldn't read again or books I loved so very much that I immediately ran out and bought my own copy so I'd always have it on hand (after all, those are on my shelves for me to see anytime). And, unfortunately, I'm not going to include the many, many books I really liked but have forgotten the titles of. Those are just gone forever. But with LibraryThing, maybe I can keep that problem from happening again.
And maybe later I may use it to keep track of books I'm interested in checking out later, instead of that five-page Word document I've got them all listed in.
I really only intended to add about ten books today, but once you start, it's hard to stop! I ended up adding thirty. My username is LunaMurphy, if you'd like to see my list.
I wasn't as happy with searching in LibraryThing. I searched for The Story of the Stone, an exact title, and it came back with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as the first hit, and the book I was looking for nowhere on the first five pages. It wouldn't do an exact phrase search with quotation marks, either. I went over to Amazon and found it on the first page (even though it still wasn't the first entry). Then I went back to LibraryThing with the author's name and found it more easily. For several of my books, I had to go to my library's catalog or to Amazon to get enough information to find it in LibraryThing.
I do, however, like that there is something resembling authority control on the tags. I tagged my books "do not own," and when connecting to other users, that tag is rendered "unowned." The LibraryThing tag info for "unowned" says, "Includes: unowned, @unowned, DoNotOwn, Don'tOwn, Don’tOwn, _NOT.OWNED, do no own, do not have, do not own, don't own, dont have, dont own, not owned, not-own, not-owned, notowned." Nice way to round up similar tags without forcing people to use a controlled vocabulary.
A side observation: LibraryThing is not afraid to try things that are helpful to readers but harmful to bookstores, things you'll never see from Amazon. Check out LibraryThing's Unsuggester. It's the antithesis of the typical "If you liked X, you might also like Y" recommendation system. Unsuggester offers the equally useful counter, "If you liked X, you'll probably hate Z." What better way to say, "That book sucked," than by saving other readers the pain of suffering through it?
Thing #11 1/2
Nebraska Learns 2.0 used a Voki to deliver the instructions for Thing #11. A lot of participants responded using Vokis of their own. I wanted to make one, too, but I had trouble, even with my shiny new DSL connection. Whenever I tried to change the face shape or hair color or whatever, it would take what seemed like an unreasonably long time to load. Then, when I changed her shirt, her hair disappeared and after five minutes had not come back. The little spinning wheel just kept spinning, so I knew the program had just stalled out. I don't think this is Voki's fault. I think if I had a better computer with an up-to-date browser and all the latest plug-ins, it would have worked fine. I will probably revisit Voki when I replace my computer, but that's months away, if not a year or more.
So this is something to remember about technology. We still live in a world divided by haves and have-nots. The have-nots are further divided into choose-to-have-nots and unable-to-have-nots. Those who choose to have not usually have looked at a given technology and decided they are not interested. They are content. Those who are unable to have it, however, often want it and feel deeply hampered by their inability to get it (which is almost always related to money). And they are deeply hampered, if their economic situation prevents them from doing basic things, like posting their resume online from home.
And this is something libraries have to remember, too. Absolutely, we need to continue our efforts to keep up with the technologies used by our most saavy patrons, the ones who have computers at home that make the best computers in our libraries look substandard. But we have to remember not to leave behind the have-nots who come to us because we provide access to technology and equipment they could only dream of having at home. A good friend of mine called me the other day to tell me how amazing the public library's computers are, and how blown away she was by their speed and all the things she could do with them. Now I'm sure the librarians there feel their computers are old, outdated, and due for replacing, but this friend is using a ten-year-old machine with Windows 95, a dial-up modem, decrepit CRT monitor that turns everything green, and a browser that can't scroll to the right if a page is too wide, much less render Flash animation. So to her, the library's facilities are godly. I have other friends who don't have internet access at all from their homes, and still others who don't have computers. Not that they don't want them; they just can't afford them.
It's a balancing act for libraries, but it truly is imperative that we keep ourselves primed to serve those at both ends of the continuum. To be relevant to the haves, we need not only to understand the tech they're using, but to be able to offer them some level of service beyond what they can get from their friends. It's not enough to be there; we have to be useful while we're there. But at the same time, we have to remember that we are the lifeline of the have-nots, especially in this economy. It's a wide stance, but we really need to stand on both sides of the fence.
So this is something to remember about technology. We still live in a world divided by haves and have-nots. The have-nots are further divided into choose-to-have-nots and unable-to-have-nots. Those who choose to have not usually have looked at a given technology and decided they are not interested. They are content. Those who are unable to have it, however, often want it and feel deeply hampered by their inability to get it (which is almost always related to money). And they are deeply hampered, if their economic situation prevents them from doing basic things, like posting their resume online from home.
And this is something libraries have to remember, too. Absolutely, we need to continue our efforts to keep up with the technologies used by our most saavy patrons, the ones who have computers at home that make the best computers in our libraries look substandard. But we have to remember not to leave behind the have-nots who come to us because we provide access to technology and equipment they could only dream of having at home. A good friend of mine called me the other day to tell me how amazing the public library's computers are, and how blown away she was by their speed and all the things she could do with them. Now I'm sure the librarians there feel their computers are old, outdated, and due for replacing, but this friend is using a ten-year-old machine with Windows 95, a dial-up modem, decrepit CRT monitor that turns everything green, and a browser that can't scroll to the right if a page is too wide, much less render Flash animation. So to her, the library's facilities are godly. I have other friends who don't have internet access at all from their homes, and still others who don't have computers. Not that they don't want them; they just can't afford them.
It's a balancing act for libraries, but it truly is imperative that we keep ourselves primed to serve those at both ends of the continuum. To be relevant to the haves, we need not only to understand the tech they're using, but to be able to offer them some level of service beyond what they can get from their friends. It's not enough to be there; we have to be useful while we're there. But at the same time, we have to remember that we are the lifeline of the have-nots, especially in this economy. It's a wide stance, but we really need to stand on both sides of the fence.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thing #11
Onward to Thing #11: Blog about Technology. The instructions say, "simply blog about anything technology related."
Anything? ANYTHING? Sit down and grab a snack. This is going to be long.
Technology is everything, literally everything, humans make, ever have made, or ever will make. That statue in the park? The tools used to carve it are technology. The front door of your house? The hinges, the pane of tempered glass, the doorknob, the lock, even the chain, as well as all the tools and machines used to make these pieces--all technology.
These days, people say "technology" when they mean "electronics." Computers, cell phones, iPods, Kindles, Blackberries, video game consoles, and so on. Or they mean "intangibles"--technology that has evolved beyond physical boundaries--operating systems, computer programs, the internet, the web (they are not the same), Flash animations, streaming video, etc.
Folks forget that the book is also technology. It's old technology, but still . . . think about all the materials and processes that go into making a book. Think about how books were made by hand and written by hand in medieval monasteries. Now think about how they are made today. Think about the "Espresso" machine at the New York Public Library, which prints e-books on demand. Think about how that changes the game for publishing as well as for libraries. The book has undergone some astonishing technological developments through its history.
Some people say print is dead. They've been saying it for a long time, and I'm sure they'll keep saying it. Sure, some people love to read books on their Kindles, but others love the feel of paper in their hands. They want books because they don't want to have to worry about batteries running dead or about dropping a $400 dollar device in the bathtub. They want books because they don't want their favorite novel to become unreadable when some technological advance somewhere down the line renders a particular file format obsolete. Books are never obsolete. Of course, they can rot. They can burn. They can crumble into dust. As long as you keep backing up your files and converting them into the latest "standard" format of the day, you can keep them forever.
Some people drive sedans. Some people drive pickup trucks. Big deal. Some people read on paper. Some read on screens. Big deal.
The point is, the book isn't going away, not so long as there are people who value the tactile sensation of paper upon their fingertips.
The other point is, it doesn't matter. Paper books. Electronic books. Whatever. The library's mission remains the same: providing access to information and entertainment. The way we do our business is transitioning, but that's nothing new. Think about the first library that got an online catalog. Heck, think about the first library that decided to include non-print media in their collection, maybe a sound recording or a movie. There had to be a first one somewhere. Go back even further. Think about the first library that dared to open its doors to the--gasp--public. Libraries are all about change. Always have been, always will be. Why? Because libraries are all about culture. Whatever the people want and need, we provide--we MUST provide, if we want to remain part of the culture. And remember, culture is as much I Can Has Cheezburger? as Shakespeare.
Before I retire, I fully expect to be downloading novels and movies directly into my brain, and sharing them to patrons. How will that work? Is that technically "circulating" the collection? What kinds of laws and social mores will regulate direct brain-to-brain file transfer? Yet I expect I'll probably still have shelves full of paper books, as well as movies on VHS, DVD, and at least three other physical formats, both at home and at the library.
But here's where it gets sticky. Some technologies go obsolete. For technologies requiring no additional tools to operate (e.g.: books, door hinges, etc.), this takes longer, if it happens at all; quite often they continue to thrive alongside other technologies because people still find them useful. But technologies that are not self-contained tend to fall by the wayside. How many libraries still have U-Matic tapes in their collection? Do you even remember what U-Matic is? And when the last U-Matic player breaks, the information on any remaining tapes is gone forever, unless someone thought to copy it to VHS, and then copy it again to DVD, and then copy it again to YouTube, and so on. Maybe you're using Word 2007 now, and your computer doesn't even have a floppy drive. Your colleague retires, and you find a bunch of diskettes filled with Word Perfect files. What can you do with them? The information is gone forever. Maybe it's just old procedures that were outdated anyway. Maybe it's the mythical Great American Novel. Dross will be lost to the sands of time, but so will treasures. But that's nothing new with the modern age. Medieval monks decided which books to copy and preserve, and which ones to let go. Dross was lost, but so were treasures. And this will continue to happen so long as people have opinions on what is cool and what is crap, in other words, until the end of time.
But even if the manifestations change (oh Lord, did I just bring up FRBR?), it's the content that is key. U-Matic, VHS, DVD, .avi, or whatever format you put it in, it's still an episode from The Muppet Show, and it's still funny. So libraries need to stay cognizant of the fact that we gather, search, and provide access to content, whatever the carrier. Evolving technology provides evolving tools to perform the same essential functions for society. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
How do you predict which technologies are going to stick? You can't, really. But here's one guideline. Technologies that are useful and make people's lives better will stick, and continue to evolve. Look at how quickly cell phones and GPS became integral parts of our culture. Why? Because they directly and immediately enriched people's lives. Technologies that are sufficiently entertaining will stick around, too, because people love to have fun. Case in point, the video game. Sure, things have changed a lot between Pong and World of Warcraft, but it's still all about fun. And sometimes people whip out the old Atari 2600 games just for a trip down nostalgia lane. (I do, from time to time, and my friends play them with me.)
But we must guard against a new Dark Age. Can you imagine losing our computers? That can't happen, right? Well, did you know that computers existed well before the 20th century? If you're nodding and thinking of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, you'll have to go back a lot further. The ancient Greeks had computers over two thousand years ago. No joke. Look up the Antikythera Mechanism. Of course, they weren't surfing the web or sending out Tweets to all their pals, but it was still an astonishingly advanced piece of technology. How did such sophisticated tech vanish? Could it happen again? Think about it. (If you enjoy that line of thinking, read Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs.)
Libraries are in the best position to protect and preserve the "good stuff." New technology isn't to be feared, but explored. Some of it will be junk, and some of it will transform our lives. Creation and use of technology are what make humans human.
Anything? ANYTHING? Sit down and grab a snack. This is going to be long.
Technology is everything, literally everything, humans make, ever have made, or ever will make. That statue in the park? The tools used to carve it are technology. The front door of your house? The hinges, the pane of tempered glass, the doorknob, the lock, even the chain, as well as all the tools and machines used to make these pieces--all technology.
These days, people say "technology" when they mean "electronics." Computers, cell phones, iPods, Kindles, Blackberries, video game consoles, and so on. Or they mean "intangibles"--technology that has evolved beyond physical boundaries--operating systems, computer programs, the internet, the web (they are not the same), Flash animations, streaming video, etc.
Folks forget that the book is also technology. It's old technology, but still . . . think about all the materials and processes that go into making a book. Think about how books were made by hand and written by hand in medieval monasteries. Now think about how they are made today. Think about the "Espresso" machine at the New York Public Library, which prints e-books on demand. Think about how that changes the game for publishing as well as for libraries. The book has undergone some astonishing technological developments through its history.
Some people say print is dead. They've been saying it for a long time, and I'm sure they'll keep saying it. Sure, some people love to read books on their Kindles, but others love the feel of paper in their hands. They want books because they don't want to have to worry about batteries running dead or about dropping a $400 dollar device in the bathtub. They want books because they don't want their favorite novel to become unreadable when some technological advance somewhere down the line renders a particular file format obsolete. Books are never obsolete. Of course, they can rot. They can burn. They can crumble into dust. As long as you keep backing up your files and converting them into the latest "standard" format of the day, you can keep them forever.
Some people drive sedans. Some people drive pickup trucks. Big deal. Some people read on paper. Some read on screens. Big deal.
The point is, the book isn't going away, not so long as there are people who value the tactile sensation of paper upon their fingertips.
The other point is, it doesn't matter. Paper books. Electronic books. Whatever. The library's mission remains the same: providing access to information and entertainment. The way we do our business is transitioning, but that's nothing new. Think about the first library that got an online catalog. Heck, think about the first library that decided to include non-print media in their collection, maybe a sound recording or a movie. There had to be a first one somewhere. Go back even further. Think about the first library that dared to open its doors to the--gasp--public. Libraries are all about change. Always have been, always will be. Why? Because libraries are all about culture. Whatever the people want and need, we provide--we MUST provide, if we want to remain part of the culture. And remember, culture is as much I Can Has Cheezburger? as Shakespeare.
Before I retire, I fully expect to be downloading novels and movies directly into my brain, and sharing them to patrons. How will that work? Is that technically "circulating" the collection? What kinds of laws and social mores will regulate direct brain-to-brain file transfer? Yet I expect I'll probably still have shelves full of paper books, as well as movies on VHS, DVD, and at least three other physical formats, both at home and at the library.
But here's where it gets sticky. Some technologies go obsolete. For technologies requiring no additional tools to operate (e.g.: books, door hinges, etc.), this takes longer, if it happens at all; quite often they continue to thrive alongside other technologies because people still find them useful. But technologies that are not self-contained tend to fall by the wayside. How many libraries still have U-Matic tapes in their collection? Do you even remember what U-Matic is? And when the last U-Matic player breaks, the information on any remaining tapes is gone forever, unless someone thought to copy it to VHS, and then copy it again to DVD, and then copy it again to YouTube, and so on. Maybe you're using Word 2007 now, and your computer doesn't even have a floppy drive. Your colleague retires, and you find a bunch of diskettes filled with Word Perfect files. What can you do with them? The information is gone forever. Maybe it's just old procedures that were outdated anyway. Maybe it's the mythical Great American Novel. Dross will be lost to the sands of time, but so will treasures. But that's nothing new with the modern age. Medieval monks decided which books to copy and preserve, and which ones to let go. Dross was lost, but so were treasures. And this will continue to happen so long as people have opinions on what is cool and what is crap, in other words, until the end of time.
But even if the manifestations change (oh Lord, did I just bring up FRBR?), it's the content that is key. U-Matic, VHS, DVD, .avi, or whatever format you put it in, it's still an episode from The Muppet Show, and it's still funny. So libraries need to stay cognizant of the fact that we gather, search, and provide access to content, whatever the carrier. Evolving technology provides evolving tools to perform the same essential functions for society. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
How do you predict which technologies are going to stick? You can't, really. But here's one guideline. Technologies that are useful and make people's lives better will stick, and continue to evolve. Look at how quickly cell phones and GPS became integral parts of our culture. Why? Because they directly and immediately enriched people's lives. Technologies that are sufficiently entertaining will stick around, too, because people love to have fun. Case in point, the video game. Sure, things have changed a lot between Pong and World of Warcraft, but it's still all about fun. And sometimes people whip out the old Atari 2600 games just for a trip down nostalgia lane. (I do, from time to time, and my friends play them with me.)
But we must guard against a new Dark Age. Can you imagine losing our computers? That can't happen, right? Well, did you know that computers existed well before the 20th century? If you're nodding and thinking of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, you'll have to go back a lot further. The ancient Greeks had computers over two thousand years ago. No joke. Look up the Antikythera Mechanism. Of course, they weren't surfing the web or sending out Tweets to all their pals, but it was still an astonishingly advanced piece of technology. How did such sophisticated tech vanish? Could it happen again? Think about it. (If you enjoy that line of thinking, read Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs.)
Libraries are in the best position to protect and preserve the "good stuff." New technology isn't to be feared, but explored. Some of it will be junk, and some of it will transform our lives. Creation and use of technology are what make humans human.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
