Nearly 10 years ago, when I was in grad school working on my MLS, I had a talk with a professor from my university about the future of libraries. He was from the English department, and at that point he had a much better understanding of libraries than I did. My approach was very sentimental....still is, to a certain extent. I dreamed of cozy corners hidden away in aging buildings and of serendipitous finds of a first edition or a letter stuck between the pages of a hardback 1920s novel. I loved the hum always present in libraries that helped you wander off into your own world, the pockets in the back of every book recording the names of each person who had checked out that book over the last 10 years (which now makes me wonder why we made such a big deal out of the Patriot Act??), and the rows upon rows of "stacks", a term which I've always loved.
At this point, you may be rolling your eyes at my sentimentality, and I'm positive the professor had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at my naivete. He warned me that I might have to adjust my perspective about libraries and that big changes were on the horizon....yeah, yeah, whatever, I thought. Oh, but he was right! Eight years into my library career, I look at the jobs I've had and wonder how I became a "techie" of sorts. I was an English major! I love books, stories, poetry, and art! Yet a day when I answer a question using my English background is fairly rare, and a day doesn't go by when I don't answer a question about technology.
So things have changed.
I have changed in many ways. I still treasure the atmosphere of libraries and the chance that you might find a rare book hidden amongst the stacks...and all of those things I was so sentimental about are still there. But I also recognize the importance of the technology that libraries are constantly wrestling with because it is the technology that in many ways helps us achieve what I now believe is the ultimate purpose of libraries....access. We are all about putting the information into the hands of those in our community, whether that be in a large-town public library, an academic library, a high school library, or a medical library. The technology we use is a tool--if it's a tool that works and it gets information to people more effectively and efficiently, we should use it. If it doesn't achieve that end, it should go.
That brings me to my point (finally!!)...I love the concepts of Library 2.0. The opportunity to interact more with our patrons and to customize our collections to suit their needs even better is exciting and worthwhile. My concern, however, is that from time to time, we allow the technology to become the end rather than the means to an end. I believe we have to always keep in mind our purpose--to give our patrons easy access to the information they need.
Having said that, I think that we are at a point in libraries where we can provide that service better than we have ever been able to before. The Web 2.0 tools seem to be meant for us! Libraries are the perfect forum for making the most and best use of these tools.
So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm excited about what is ahead and what is possible, but cautious that we still remember our goal of serving our patrons. As we learn about the 23 Things, I'm going to be thinking about how these tools can help our students and whether or not they are feasible for our situation at Clay High. High school students are a tough group--it's hard to convince them that they NEED the library or that they should WANT to come there. But I hope that these tools will help with that....that we will be able to reach our students on their level and to build good relationships with them. I hope we'll able to make the library more approachable and usable.
So...this was a lot more random and rambling than I meant for it to be, but it's been good for me to think through these issues. Tomorrow...Thing 3!
