[Publib] Library 2.0?!

[Kathleen Stipek]

To make a long answer short, you're darn right we need it.  If we don't know how to use the tools effectively and efficiently, we are not doing the job those nice taxpayers are paying us to do for them.  If we aren't, what happens to us when those folks start wondering if all the money they are paying is being wisely used?  They get cranky when they don't think it isn't.  

Kathleen Stipek
Alachua County Library District
401 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32601
(352-334-3931) fax (352-334-3948)

--Non, merci.
  Cyrano de Bergerac
 

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 7:28 PM
To: 'p'
Subject: RE: [Publib] Library 2.0?!

All too often those who purchase the Next Big Technological Thing forget about the end users and that carbon-based interface who has to explain it to them. ...

...

I'm in a slightly devilish mood, and it's almost Friday! So I'm going to turn the tables on Kathleen's comment.

Assuming that you at least get a heads-up that it's imminent, is it really so difficult for us to figure out something like "wow, now the catalog can give us recommendations!" Hello, masters in library science? 

Do we have to put out reams of documentation for stuff that is kind of, well, obvious? Could we close the deal with a five-minute YouTube video?
("This is your library. This is your library on Librarything.")

I'm all for good documentation... if people actually used it, that would be even cooler. Did I ever tell the PUBLIB folks about an experience at a Former Place Of Work learning through usability testing that just about nobody reads documentation? 

Also, I fully understand how it can be working somewhere that new technology is constantly dumped on you without warning. But exactly how many innovations are being dumped on the typical public library in an average workweek? Is it so dizzying, really?

Karen G. Schneider



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