It is interesting to me that so many librarians are fearful of and/or avoiding the x.0 world. I also find it very odd. Librarians have historically been early adopters of technology … though I am now seeing that it is truly only some librarians who fit this bill. So many won’t explore or try out new tools – tools that would be very useful to them in their professional and/or home lives — and sometimes are fun to use!
I have been thinking about this because I am simply baffled by the negativity with which some librarians are approaching the wide variety of new and practical tools that are now freely available to us. The irony is that some of the very same people who I find are now using all the excuses they can imagine to avoid new technologies are the very same librarians were the first to embrace the possibilities that past new technologies provided! Librarians imagined then created online catalogues (OPACs) before the days of commercially available catalogue databases. From variable-length data fields (in MARC records) to sharing of bibliographic data online, librarians were using the internet and e-mail extensively and efficiently even before the days when the average techno-savvy person could access online bulletin boards … before the days of gopher and Lynx!
What does this mean? I guess it is a reminder to me that while many librarians are early adopters of new tools, not all librarians are. And, just because historically particular librarians may have been early adopters of some technologies doesn’t mean they objectively analyze new technologies … perhaps they were just early adopters of a particular technology. And, this isn’t limited to the more experienced librarians, there seem to be many librarians of all stripes who avoid new technologies. No judgement here, just an observation.
As for me, I have always been an early adopter … though I don’t adopt technologies just because they are new. I had my first cell phone (a bag phone, powered via 12V cigarette lighter plug in my car) in the early 1990’s (kinda funny as I haven’t owned a cell phone for over 10 years now), I began using the internet in 1990 while studying for my undergrad (when a forward-thinking English prof , C. Stuart Hunter, insisted that his students complete short quizzes online at the University of Guelph), and I am always thinking about how I can use new tools (both in my work as a librarian and at home). I don’t believe new technologies are good simply because they are new … they must meet some need (efficiency, entertainment, communication, …) or be useful tools, I don’t jump on all bandwagons.
