I was not "Born with the Chip"

I have only completed four classes in the SLIS program, but already the main message I am getting is, “technology now rules the library.” Once I’ve completed my courses, I’m going to have to make a concerted effort to stay current.

Once I am a librarian, hopefully a school librarian, I think my colleagues and peers are going to be my best sources on technology. By networking, and perhaps forming or joining a local library forum, we can share information on our experiences with technology. As has been pointed out in many of my classes, libraries and librarians shouldn’t have to embrace every new technology that Steve Jobs (or whoever) comes up with. We have to figure out which new technologies will serve us and our patrons best, and learn all we can about those. By sharing information with other librarians who are “in the trenches,” we will be able to benefit from one another’s experiences with technology…which ones worked, which ones flopped, which ones the patrons use most, etc. I imagine meetings where all of the districts’ librarians come together will be teeming with technology swapping. Technology is never going to stop coming, and there is never going to be one definitive method to running a library. I plan to absorb all the information I can so I can best serve the students.

Come to think of it, student patrons are also going to be a wonderful source of technology. Who adopts the newest technologies first? Young people. I will listen to their explanations of new sites, new techniques, and new gadgets and hopefully stay hip…technologically hip, that is. Adopting a static mindset and stubbornly clinging to the technology that I’m comfortable with is not going to be an option if my library is going to stay current and relevant. I bet the students can tell me most of what I need to know.