[Publib] Arguing Technology

Wed Feb 4 14:55:09 EST 2009

Absolutely.  However, the electricity does on occasion go out, and  
the internet does on occasion fail to work.  And I am still a  
librarian.  I still am able to direct patrons to a lot of the books  
they want, much of the information they are looking for can still be  
found, and most of their questions are still able to be answered.   
Yes, it helps that I have worked with the DDC for almost 25 years and  
I can tell you what number you need for just about anything.  And it  
helps that I have been here for over 16 years and I know right where  
the low-carb cookbooks and King novels, and Latin dictionaries, and  
science fair project books are shelved.  And it certainly helps that  
we have a huge collection of print bibliographies on many diverse  
subjects, and that I am an avid reader myself. But after all, isn't  
that what makes us librarians? The ability to help our patrons.

In fact, when the electricity or internet make the use of the  
computers impossible, the only question that I have to answer in the  
negative over and over again is "Can I use the Internet?" or "May I  
check my email?"

Lorie

On Jan 23, 2009, at 10:29 AM, Carl Long wrote:

> "It behooves us to ask ourselves how many of us would still be  
> librarians if the electricity went out, and the computer screens  
> went blank."
> Does that same line of thinking hold if "all the books burned up"?  
> The right tool for the right job obviously, however, modern digital  
> information technology can be vastly superior to print material for  
> certain capacities. Dictionaries, indexes, and the like were almost  
> meant to be digital with internal hypertext linking, advanced  
> searching and sort functions. It's not that print indexes are  
> better or worse than digital ones it's that they simply *cannot* do  
> those functions.
>
> Best Regards,
> Carl Long
> Reading Public Library
> http://www.reading.lib.pa.us/
>
> Backwage at aol.com wrote:
>> The other day I was minding my own business, riding the train to  
>> work whilst reading the paper when I overheard a conversation  
>> between two fellow passengers.  They were both young folks, which  
>> by my lights means less than 35; the topic was computers.  At the  
>> time, both of them were fiddling with their devices, though the  
>> machines seemed to have no connection to the topic at hand--this  
>> is just something that kids do, like jiggle their legs and roll  
>> their eyes when adults speak.
>>  I will spare you the particulars of the exchange except to  
>> mention that it concerned the relative merits of one operating  
>> system versus another--Mac and PC.  As usual in these confabs, it  
>> was war to the knife from the start.  The two of them went at it  
>> from Allen Street to Union Station, a distance of several  
>> lifetimes if one is trapped close by and cannot find a distant  
>> seat.  It was like watching a married couple squabble in a  
>> restaurant.
>>  You see a lot of this in the library world.  Mostly, I think,  
>> because the protagonists prefer such blather over more substantial  
>> topics.  Besides, the entire row marks the participants as being  
>> among the elevated class which comprehends the guts of such  
>> discussions.  At least it makes them important among themselves.   
>> I am old enough to remember when the tech-savvy kids would get  
>> together to argue the qualities of various vacuum tubes.  The same  
>> type of kids play with computers today.   This is also something  
>> that you see in any industry where particular tools are used to  
>> achieve certain results.  The computer folk wouldn't want to think  
>> of themselves as mechanics, but they are.  Their discussions are  
>> simply arguments over tools--the adjustable crescent wrench over  
>> the box-end.  Where auto fixers congregate, there are fierce  
>> rivalries over life-and-death decisions such as:  Proto or Snap- 
>> On?  And, exactly when did Craftsman start going down the tubes?    
>> I have seen men ready to kill over the use of a particular impact  
>> wrench to remove lug nuts.  These arguments tend to spread out as  
>> the actual technical merits of either choice are exhausted as  
>> topics.  Then you get into the personalities of the particular  
>> inventors--the other side's founding father being of course either  
>> a dyed-in-wool fascist or a sellout to commercial interests.   
>> There are people in the library world who know more, and think  
>> better, of Steve Jobs than they do of any person who has ever held  
>> the title of librarian.  Some of them think he should run the  
>> country; others fear he does.
>>  By now you may have gained the impression that these people bore  
>> me.  While true, the point of this is that they and their  
>> arguments over which electronic wrench to use are not particularly  
>> useful.  In point of fact, they are without substantial benefit to  
>> the user base.  As, in actual fact, are quite a few of the current  
>> (and seeming eternal) discussions over systems, hardware,  
>> processing, and the like.  It is not that the library doesn't rest  
>> on a solid core of information processing--it is that the library  
>> doesn't begin or end in the back room.  Even now, when the catalog  
>> is an OPAC and every system is run by or through a computer, the  
>> library isn't a computer.  It isn't the Internet.  And it  
>> certainly isn't anything offered by a software or hardware  
>> vendor.  An old friend of mine has been writing books and magazine  
>> articles for decades on a manual typewriter.  He is a writer,  
>> obviously.  Which means he writes better than you, most likely.   
>> You will probably not write better than he on any computer,  
>> regardless of operating system.  If the entire computer world  
>> collapsed, he would still be a writer.  In fact, if his manual  
>> Underwood was lost, he would still be a writer--and even if he ran  
>> out of pencils.  It behooves us to ask ourselves how many of us  
>> would still be librarians if the electricity went out, and the  
>> computer screens went blank.  M. McGrorty
>>
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lorie J. O'Donnell, MLS
Chief Librarian for Children's Services

Jervis Public Library
613 N. Washington St.
Rome, NY   13440

315-336-4570 ext. 226