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.
2 responses so far ↓
Gerry Burla // June 25, 2009 at 10:18 am |
Aimee,
Do you think it is apprehension or is it frustration? There are so many choices out there now, which one should be used? The examples you gave from the early 1990s were the ones available. I am hard pressed to remember an alternative that I could have accessed through the university at that time. Now, the sky’s the limit. There are so many choices, I think the innovators are moving in different directions. There are those aggregators like Google Wave may prove to be, or to something simple like Tiny Chat instead of Meebo.
Take microblogging as an example. Does one update the status on Facebook, or Tweet? Or do you do both? Do you link the two? Will that alienate or frustrate your Facebook friends with the Tweeting. I know that your “friends” may not be the same as your Tweople (followers), but are they separate for a reason?
I am not so sure it is fear as much as too many choices right now. How many friends and colleagues have been burned by technological improvements in the past? I remember laser discs, and beta tapes. Beta was the technologically sounder (if I recall correctly) devices, but it lost out in the consumer battle to VHS. Then there was Sony’s BlueRay overtaking Toshiba’s HD-DVD. It may be just a matter of waiting to see who comes out on top.
I agree that some librarians are hesitant about the latest device or innovation, but I think it may be caution rather than fear. I have become slower at trying new products only because I am waiting for them to mature. If that means waiting to discover someone I feel worthy of following in Twitter rather than posting that I am heating my sandwich for lunch today, I am willing to be labeled hesitant.
aimee // June 25, 2009 at 8:14 pm |
It isn’t the volume of choices/options I am talking about, it is the simple fact that some librarians (and many other people too) discount all the options without even looking at any of them. Kinda like criticizing a book they haven’t read … true ignorance. Yes, some people are cautious about the “new”, and I understand that. I too am cautious about the new, especially as there is so much “new” out there now. The cautious people aren’t the people that I am confused about, it is the people who discount all tools outright .. without even taking a critical look at even one of them. Even stranger, a lot of the same people who are discounting all tools are the same people who used to critically evaluate the “new” and come up with creative and practical uses for them.