Sandra Herber: Future Librarian

I have just finished the readings for this week and I think they were a great introduction to the course.  I feel much more comfortable now that I know what Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are and, more importantly, something about their potential in a library setting.  Potential, I guess, is the key work.  I feel that libraries are transitioning (sometimes smoothly, sometimes with some resistance) into exploring the possible benefits of these technologies and the philosophies behind them.  I found some of the ideas (central and peripheral) in the articles were intriguing, while some I was not sure I agreed with.  So… some random thoughts:

Letting Go of Control

Jack Maness says that Library 2.0 “is a user-centered virtual community. It is a socially rich, often egalitarian electronic space. While Librarian 2.0 might act as a facilitator and provide support, he or she is not necessarily primarily responsible for the creation of the content”.  This is not an idea unique to this article: it came up in a number of the readings (the Kroski article, for one).  While on the surface this is touted as a benefit of Library 2.0, I think it is a great challenge to many librarians to think about letting go of control.  We come from a profession that has catalogued and controlled access to all sorts of information for at least a hundred years (or more, depending on how you define librarianship).  Now we’re being asked to open the gates and let the library users in.  Not only in, but in so far that they are creating the content.  For those of us new graduates, whom I think many older librarians expect to be comfortable with these technologies and ideas, this is a challenge worth keeping in mind.  Tread softly but assertively through the potential resistance!

John Blyberg also tackles this idea in his article.  He says, “If we are going to play host to non-authoritative content (which it is when it comes from our patrons), then how do we designate that? L2 ushers in an era where this becomes something libraries need to do. There is a lot of fantastic non-authoritative data–we just need to get off our high horses and decide to make it available. The matter of how to mark it as non-authoritative is still pending, of course.”  He gets at the issue in a much more direct way than I did in the previous paragraph (the high horses reference), but he brings up an interesting point.  First, user-generated information is not the same as information generated through a peer-review process and librarians know that.  We are not being asked to equate the two.  Second, we haven’t found a way yet of marking this information as non-authoritative.  When we have, it will make its integration into our offerings much more palatable.

We are the Vanguard (or maybe we’re running just behind the vanguard)

Henry Jenkins believes there is a kind of hidden curriculum in participatory cultures which are “shaping which youth will succeed and which will be left behind as they enter school and the workplace.”  While I know he was talking about students much younger than us, I thought about it in a personal way.  Over the break I spoke to the head of Human Resources at a large academic library.  He believed that new library grads were expected by current librarians to be comfortable with technology and especially with the technology and ideas around Library 2.0.  It made me glad that I’m taking this course, but also a little daunted.  I never thought that I would have to be the one spearheading the implementation of new ideas and technologies with which I was only vaguely familiar a year ago.  But, isn’t that why we come back to school?  To be exposed to new ideas and new paradigms?

Making it Easier to Get to the Information

Rick Anderson made an interesting point when he said, “We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning.”  It seems so simple when he puts it like that!  We spend so much time and effort trying to figure out how we can teach users to access information through the maze of databases and interfaces, but we (ok, I) have never stopped to think that maybe it would be so much easier just to make the information more accessible.  I know that that isn’t easy – we have large and powerful vendors to deal with, but I like it as a goal.  Whenever possible and wherever you can influence these things – try to make the information easier to access.  I imagine that this isn’t a priority for some librarians because they think it might lose them their jobs.  I understand that fear, but isn’t our primary focus to connect our users with the information they need?  If we make that so easy that they don’t need us any more we will just make ourselves relevant in other ways.