Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Kicking and Screaming Into This Year

From The Rock & Roll Librarian:

Okay, some of my coworkers “sort of” know what a blog is. They “might have heard of” a podcast but definitely never used one. They thought Firefox was an old videogame when I mentioned it. One of my coworkers asked if we would need to teach our teen patrons how to use a Playstation 2 when we finally started lending video games.
Am I really that much of a techie or are my coworkers techno-dinosaurs?
One of the most difficult things I have to get across to my tech-wary peers is that the technology they hear about is not the wave of the future, it is now. Podcasting was the word of the year in 2005; it is new but it should not be unchartered waters. Let’s not even get into what is going to be available five years down the road; that is going to blow their minds.
In fairness, I am a bit of a technophile. I love blogging, podcasting, vodcasting, botcasting, certain wikis, and all the stuff in between. I’m constantly talking about the RIAA, DRM, DMCA, and other issues of electronic information. So yes, I do love technology, but none of this stuff should be unknown… especially if you are a librarian.
And it is the latter fragment of a statement as to why I am confused when my fellow Librarians are lost on technology. It is not that I feel I am so far on the edge, it is that I feel these Librarians have lagged behind. Don’t forget, Libraries are about information, not books. Today, information is largely being posted on the Internet by way of pods, blogs, and vods (oh my!). For Librarians to simply ignore the emergence of this technology, they have ignored a potentially valuable source of information for their patrons. To do so, is not just poor upkeep of ones’ professional skills, it is an injustice to the patrons we are supposed to be providing for.

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