Expand Your Social and Professional Circles
While most of us need another workday meeting like we need increased journal prices, meeting with colleagues who are not in attendance at the same meetings as you can really open your eyes. It took me traveling to Nigeria with a serials cataloger to make me aware of the looming developments of Research Description and Access (RDA), Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST), and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR).
Don’t wait as long as I did! It is embarrassing. Be the first reference librarian on your block to know how FAST and RDA might affect the OPAC and your patrons. These changes will have technical ramifications. (If there are any ILS vendors reading this, I hope that you are getting ready.) Get in on the discussions early and be part of the change. Advocate for the patron; applaud developments as warranted or stand up and make suggestions for improvement.
A formal meeting of groups can be productive. My library just instituted a meeting between our general public services librarians and technical services librarians. Library IT and public service might be a good occasional meeting to have as well. Informal conversations over lunch, coffee, or in the hallway after another meeting can be beneficial and easier to schedule. I knew I was “in” with cataloging when one of the serials catalogers stopped by the reference desk to ask what I thought of the Calhoun report. Not only did he know I understood what he was talking about, he valued my input.
Emerging (and Retreating) Technologies
There are many technology top-X (ten or otherwise) lists available.2 Sometimes it would be nice to know what is not a top technology. This next section of the column will occur routinely and will address technologies on different places of the emergence spectrum.
Sprouting–Instant Messaging
Instant messaging (IM) is a growing mode of communication for reference services. It is already huge with our users, particularly for teenagers, who use it more than e-mail.3 While not for every library, if you’ve not looked at IM (lately) then look again. There are new services out there such as MeeboMe and CuteChat, which, while new and perhaps cloyingly named, have potential for libraries. I am not yet ready to sound the death knell of traditional chat software, given the alpha state of MeeboMe and newness of CuteChat to the library market, which has heavy consortial demands. However, these should be raising the concern of some library chat vendors and the interest of more than a few librarians.
In Bloom–Millennials
If you haven’t already smelled this flower (to overextend a metaphor) you should. But if you’ve already read the Educause report or attended a good program on Millennials or the generation gap at a conference, then turn your attention elsewhere–maybe to another age group such as the Baby Boomers or Generation X-ers.4 The issues may (or may not) be different, but Millennials are not the only people affected by technology.
Dormant–Voice over Internet Protocol and Online Videoconferencing
These just haven’t seemed to catch on with the general population and certainly not as a library service. Maybe the technology is not good enough, or maybe it is not what people want to do online. I’ve not investigated. If I read that there are a lot of consumers using these technologies, I’ll pick up my interest again. If you want to be a pioneering library in this area, please let me know how it goes.
References and Notes
- If you aren’t familiar with DOIs or other technologies mentioned, you are not alone among librarians.
- The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) presents a semiannual Top Technology Trends meeting at Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. Lists from past meetings are available (accessed Sept. 1, 2006).
- Pew Internet and American Life Project, “Teens and Technology: Youth are Leading the Transition to a Fully Wired and Mobile Nation,” July 27, 2005 (accessed Sept. 1, 2006).
- Diana Oblinger, “Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials: Understanding the New Students,” Educause Review 38, no. 4 (Jul./Aug. 2003): 37-47 (accessed Sept. 1, 2006). For starters, RUSQ 45:2 and 39:2 each contained articles on the aging population of the United States and libraries’ collections and services for this group.
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I’m a library public service assistant and a library science undergrad but not an accidental techie. I enjoy helping a kid on Runescape almost as much as I like to talking to a teenager about the latest Tamera Pierce book.
Here’s a computer website that I picked up from the website of fiction writer Richard Dooling. It’s a technology site that bills itsself as “News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.”
http://slashdot.org/