Participation & Redesign
January 30, 2010 by Kari
I’m writing this post as I read the articles to make sure I don’t lose any of my thoughts as I go.
One thing I’ve found surprising so far (and may just focus on in this post) is the idea from the blyberg.net article that some librarians feel L2 either doesn’t or shouldn’t exist/be a big deal.
As someone born in 1985 and just coming into the library world, I find this astounding. It just seems natural to me that getting people back in the library through social networking and other 2.0 methods would be the next step in our ever changing culture. If we don’t cater to our users, what the heck are we even here for?
I am starting to view the Library 2.0 as one giant social network. By using all of the features Sarah Houghton mentions-
“Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.”
-we can create a living, breathing network where our patrons can actively participate and even more importantly, WANT to participate.
To say that these elements of L2 are irrelevant is to be in complete denial of society today and if the library is to survive this digital age we must not only accept society, but be in harmony with it. The tools we use as librarians must be in flux. We may be using Twitter this year to entice our patrons in, but just as MySpace is dying…Twitter will die as well and we will need to move to the next development. We MUST be open to that as librarians.
As it comes to accepting new tools within the library I have a confession to make:
I sometimes use Google to help answer quick reference questions for students. There I said it. I am committing the ultimate crime as a librarian but please remember, I’m 24 years old and Google is EASY, FAST and if you use it correctly…ACCURATE.
In my young (professionally and otherwise) opinion, to keep the patron in our libraries we must be able to use the tools they are using and we must be able to use them well. Otherwise we will loose patrons to themselves. They can use Google too…but they can’t always use it accurately. That is where we come in. Now I’m not advocating that we phase out other more traditional means of accessing information, but perhaps by working hand in hand with a search engine like Google, we can access the information just as quickly. Because that is sometimes all it boils down to.
When I started working in a high school library I lost quite a few students and their questions to Google. They would ask me a reference question and if I couldn’t come up with it in less than a minute they would lose interest and say “It’s okay, I’ll Google it later. Thanks!” and walk off. That’s when I realized I couldn’t be the “good” librarian and use our databases and encyclopedias to answer questions. I needed to do what I would do at home – I needed to use the same tools as my patrons.
Of course moving to this way of thinking isn’t too hard for me but I can see how it could be for some. Especially those who have been in the profession for decades. However, as librarians in the 21st century we must accept these new ways of finding and using information or we chance becoming a relic, merely an afterthought of the information age.
Have no shame about using Google! I don’t work in a library currently, but yes, there are some quick questions that can be answered with a simple search, and yes, people want their answers now! I use Wikipedia like there’s no tomorrow, but always with the knowledge that when push comes to shove, I’ll be able to back up whatever information I get with more thorough, more acceptably “authoritative” sources as time allows.
“It just seems natural to me that getting people back in the library through social networking and other 2.0 methods would be the next step in our ever changing culture. If we don’t cater to our users, what the heck are we even here for?”
I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s change. Some people just don’t “do” change. It doesn’t matter what it is or isn’t, they just won’t accept it or try it. The problem is, everything is changing around us if we want it to or not. With L2 it’s different but that’s good (I think). With social networking and other new tools, it opens up new ideas for libraries and if it brings people back to the library, that’s the bonus. It’s about our users, of all ages, and what services we can use to best meet whatever needs they have.
I agree with Liz and you that using Google to answer those quick reference questions shouldn’t be shameful. Like you said, if we want to be helpful to our users it means getting the right answer quickly. And I think it is possible to use Google as the excellent ready reference source that is, while also emphasizing to students the importance of using more reputable sources for their deeper research projects and also trying to teach the critical eye necessary for using Google/Wikipedia correctly.
Thanks ladies! One of the neat things we’re doing at our school now is “Website Evaluation”. The librarians are trying to teach students how to look at a website and tell if it is accurate or authoritative versus just plain junk.
They’ve had them all take a quiz before the lesson to see what they know and after they teach the class the students take the quiz again. Seems to be working!