Competency H
Demonstrate proficiency in the use of current information and communication technologies, and other related technologies, as they affect the resources and uses of libraries and other types of information providing entities
Technology moves at an increasingly breakneck speed and for libraries it is difficult to keep up with a near limitless amount of new technologies to maintain interaction with patrons and clients. While stereotypes of librarianship may portray a loyalty to preserving the status quo and the place of books it is contrary to current initiatives. Information professionals are on the forefront of technology seeking to integrate many types of new methods into the lives of patrons and clients of the library. Librarians want to make serving their patrons as convenient as possible and incorporating new technologies serves the function of access. Information and communication technologies cover a wide swath of different topics and settings for librarians to explore. The concept can be understood by defining it as the many different ways that librarians communicate and interact with the public in their environments. This interaction can take on many different forms from new technologies via the internet, cell phones or other modern telecommunication mediums to new types of interaction such as bring gaming events into the library to interact with a different type of user group.
I believe that all industries must embrace new technologies and the resulting changes in interaction that occurs with them. Librarians are no different and by communicating with the public on their terms it serves the purpose of maintaining a presence with an ever-changing society. Librarians as well as other industries are constantly concerned of sea changes in services and interaction with the public and by keeping up with technology libraries stay relevant and the public does not lose awareness of the services that libraries offer.
In my own experience keeping up with new technologies has given me many abilities to find alternative options. Open source software, new communication mediums, programming skills and free voice of Internet protocol has broadened the world for me, saved me money, and facilitated better informational access than I would have otherwise had.
Staying up with current technologies and new ideas is the purpose of staying informed and active in the developing culture scene. New technologies bring new ideas as to communication and interaction. The major technological concept that has occurred in my time has been open source software. This type of software is free in cost and in rights to use and there are many different types of programs available that serve library communities. The advanced web technologies courses have covered the web languages that are programmed with open source languages and software. PHP, MySQL, and Javascript are major parts of the Internet today and there is no organization to pay for this service. In addition libraries benefit from open source online public access catalogs that allow libraries control of their catalogs. The open source community is defined by collaboration with others and building upon a work for a communal goal. In the past initiatives might have been limited by local concerns are now global initiatives.
Interaction and outreach by librarians must seek out new mediums that people are exploring. By reaching out to these pioneers librarians can cement themselves as essential guideposts in exploring new virtual frontiers. The two areas that people are exploring are mobile services and immersive worlds. In our current time mobile phones are a basic computer that a significant amount of people will have. Especially in rural areas there has been a significant proliferation of cellular phones. Librarians must be ready to interact and serve through this new medium and the concept of the sms has quickly become a part of the modern person’s life. In our increasingly mobile lives we must adjust to communicating through a variety of different mediums and sms as well as instant messaging are areas that patrons are demanding. In LIBR 210 Reference librarianship I had the opportunity to roleplay with a fellow classmate and interaction via instant messenger. Communicating via this different medium is challenging and librarians must be ready to conduct quick research while providing a clear answer in a timely manner. While instant messenger allows much greater flexibility in the amount of information discussed and delineated sms is a trickier subject. 160 characters limit each text message and a detailed answer may have to span several messages. One area that this quick type of reference would benefit is developing world locations but with the near ubiquity of cell phone usage in the United States the amount of information available at the fingertips of anyone is staggering and librarians will be able to illustrate their resourcefulness. New companies are springing up to provide text message search services. ChaCha, KGB, and Google have sms answering services the first two are human-powered. KGB charges for their human-powered search and some see that this could have potential big business. Librarians are in a unique position to provide unparalleled service to their patrons by providing quick, timely, and well-researched answers to the public.
In my experience at SLIS I have utilized a swath of different communication programs to stay in touch with classmates and work on projects. My most recent project in my marketing course was completed through Google Wave. Though this program is being shut down due to lack of usage it was an amazing success for our project. The service worked as a collaborative wiki that allowed for real time interaction and asynchronous interaction. Group members were able to work on their share of the material at any time without fear of altering another’s work or having a copy that was out of date. I believe that programs like Google Wave will begin to crop up in the near future and be the new medium of interoffice collaborative work. One area that librarians can learn is from initiatives like Wikipedia. Librarians can utilize the power of crowd sourcing as a way to have tedious repetitive work completed by a variety of different people and increase interaction and loyalty with these same patrons. One example has been initiatives by the Smithsonian or the Library of Congress. Images were placed on Flickr an image-sharing site under public domain and the community managed to tag an enormous backlog of photos. An initiative by trained professionals would have taken a much longer amount of time. Librarians must be ready to give up some of their control and be ready to develop new interaction mediums that will engage communities of patrons in new ways so that they have a connection to the library and its services.
I know with the skills that I have gained from SLIS that I can incorporate new paradigms of interaction with patrons. I have had the opportunity in creating my own web applications and comprehending how those technologies work in a mobile computer future. The skills are extremely transferable as many new technological startups are seeking the same goldmine of user interaction and collaborative work and play that exists. These services would like to put a premium on software that allows collaboration in working and interacting through photos and librarians can utilize this extra energy as well.