Is the main purpose of the large metro public library to be a homeless
shelter? Of course not. But as long as nobody else is adequately
filling the needs of those people, we will continue to find ourselves
awkwardly taking that role on. I think it's the same with
information/computer literacy. If we don't teach these people how to
use technology, who the heck will? If nobody else will, we don't really
have a choice in the matter.
I personally think teaching basic technology skills is a very good use
of our resources (beats the pants off of trying to be the free
Blockbuster, at least). However a dedication to teaching computer
literacy skills can lead to the attitude that we must offer in-depth
training on every aspect of every service we provide or we can't offer
those services at all, and the companion attitude that there's nothing
wrong with an internet-savvy person having to take a 1 hour training
course to know how to use the catalog, just so long as we offer that
training in some form. Those attitudes greatly hinder the ability to
improve library services and cause both basic usability fixes and
cutting-edge stuff to be seen as a waste of time.
>>> Alexander Johannesen <alexander.johannesen_at_GMAIL.COM> 4/30/2007
5:52 PM >>>
[snip]
Is our purpose in life to be helpdesk for
technology-deprived people? If we retrain ourselves in such ways, what
happens when the next generation have taken over and they're all
better than *us* with technology? Ouch.
> Plus, we've got to sell ourselves to the people who think they can
> get everything they want online and are shocked to find out that the
New
> York Times isn't giving away back articles for free. We spend most
of
> our time doing the "heavy stuff" of basic information and technical
> literacy and somehow, we're supposed to sell ourselves as cutting
edge
> and fun. Of course we want to be cutting edge and fun, but it's hard
to
> please all of the people all of the time!
I think being cutting edge is essential, but not so sure about the fun
part. :) I think I understand what you're saying, though, and I'm not
sure I've got any good answers to this. To me, it feels like the
library world doesn't know what it should or shouldn't do.
Can anyone with some library history tell me how libraries in general
in the distant past have treated people wanting knowledge at the
library, but couldn't read? Were they their helpdesk, and read the
stuff out loud, or trained them in reading, or regarded it as someone
else's problem?
...
Received on Mon Apr 30 2007 - 19:35:38 EDT