While it's exciting to watch all the technological changes taking place in the world around us, especially in the 2.0 realm, it's also somewhat sad, and just a little bit scary.
I'll start off with my "old fart" opinion. In Rick Anderson's Away fromt the "icebergs" article, he talked about three obstacles threatening progress in the world of libraries. Right off the bat, he discussed massively scaling back (or even eliminating?) the "just in case" collection of materials with which we're all so comfortable. Sure it's becoming harder and harder to collect every hard copy of printed materials and resources. But like the dying breed of the Sunday newspaper, there's just something nice about holding a resource in your hand and flipping through it, page by page. The thought of losing all of that seems sort of sad.
On the flip side of things (time for my "realist" opinion!), the guy has it right. He recognizes the need for change, yet reminds us all that we can't survive if we abandon our "core principles and values" with every passing new fad. He acknowledges the need for a shift in direction, which is basically, what this whole new revolution is all about. We're all still learning and seeking, yet finding differernt ways to go about gaining the necessary knowledge to get where we're wanting to go.
It's very overwhelming, but also exciting!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I so relate to your feeling of 2.0. Creepy on the one hand and exciting on the other. I also wondered how in the world will we really educate the kids in technology. Whose job will it be? Will it be at school? Did you see the article that mentioned 3.0 and Library 4.0 that mentioned such library tools as tech spas and meditation! Now that is hard to see. Nancy
I'm excited, too! :)
I had a similar reaction to Rick's article. I don't think hard copies of books will ever cease to exist. The simple pleasure of reading your child a story at bedtime cannot be replaced with "one more download, please!" I did agree that we need to make it simpler to use the library. I disagreed with his third point.
Post a Comment