Week 1 Readings

I'm a bit stuck trying to communicate one distinct theme for this week's readings. The best I can come up with is "flux" as I think each of the authors make the point that nothing is static in the library field due to its ubiquitous reliance on technology. An ability to adapt and run with technological development, even to the point of projecting trends, is paramount to a library maintaining its relevance. It's a message that seem quaint, given even the few years since these specific subjects were written about. I guess having that feeling simply reinforces the point.

Some notes and thoughts:

1) "OCLC 2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers"

On the continuum spanning from "Theory" to "Practice," this article sits between the other two required readings. I think the argument that being technologically adept is crucial to library relevance is presented in the foreground here as the OCLC speaks directly to librarians and information professionals and challenges them to consider ways to implement technology and technological uses found in the consumer sector.
I am especially interested in the emphasis that technology cannot be determined by its producers. The argument that users are empowered to appropriate technology for the needs that they deem necessary, through the consumer sector, is one that one that I believe information professionals must consider (even if to deny or disagree with their significance). We see in this week's other readings suggestions on how to respond to user needs.
One more point I'd like to discuss about this report concerns the importance of evaluation and how librarians have shifted (and will continue to shift) into roles as educators. The glut of "nonauthoritative" publishing and user-generated information, on top of the vastly expanding amount of more "legitimate" sources, requires education on the value of sources. Certainly, this isn't easy and I'm curious as to what you have to say about different types of information in different settings: when are wikis and blogs useful? In a general setting? In an academic setting? What about non-peer-reviewed academic work such as FlowTV where primarily professors and graduate students discuss in an online forum based on short articles? What information is useful to get a user started in the right direction, but not much else?

2) "Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture" by Clifford Lynch

Lynch's remarks also speak to the need for education, as he discusses the symbiotic relationship of Information Literacy (understanding structures of content) and Information Technology Literacy (understanding structures of technology). His position is, of course, useful and I want to single out his point that education in both of these sectors requires a macro and micro perspective. I know it was not his intent to offer a detailed agenda or rigorous statistics concerning the subject, but I nonetheless wanted to interject and position the necessity for education into practical constraints - mostly just that fact of having limited resources.

I came to consider another big symbiotic relationship: theory and practice as I continued to Jason Vaughan's case study ...

3) "Lied Library @ Four Years: Technology Never Stands Still" by Jason Vaughan

Much like the discussed nature of technology, when reading Vaughan's update on the technological developments of UNLV's library system, I couldn't help but wonder how long is an article like this useful? How long does it take for technology to become standard in something as specific as academic libraries? Also, on the idea of standards, I am curious to explore what are standard methods to track usage in a library. Vaughan occasionally references the potential limits of the facility along with statistics such as print usage and measurements of how many users hit the library web site - I'm curious if any of the professional organizations have offered a recommended rubric of data that best reflects user preferences or a general understanding of how many people use library services. If anyone knows of a resource for this, please let me know.

All for now ... I appreciate your comments.