This article addressed the changes taking place not only in libraries, but in our culture, society, and across the world because of new information technologies. One of the main ideas is that people have become "format agnostic;" meaning that people have little preference for how the information is contained and are more concerned about the information that they receive (for a low cost). Print is slowly declining, along with the increase in E-books, online magazine articles, and scholarly journals that can be found online because information online can be downsized to "micropayments" in return for smaller pieces of information that the user wants (rather than paying for an entire magazine if they only want to read one article out of it).
I found the section on blogs extremely interesting - the fact that 80 percent of those who read blogs do so for news that they can't find elsewhere says a lot about what kind of news content people around the world are either censored from or cannot get their hands on other than through the Internet. And even the demographics on age and income of those who read and create blogs is somewhat surprising. Most people would expect college students and the younger generation to be the majority, but 61% of blog readers are over the age of 30.
Another main point that is stressed is the changing responsibilities of libraries to the community. This article stresses how libraries need to change their role as moving beyond just being a collector and organizer of information to one that "establishes the authenticity and provenance of content and provides the imprimatur of quality in an information-rich but context poor world" (13). And because research suggests that patrons believe libraries should make content available through emerging information technologies such as through Web Services, it is up to libraries to synthesize all of this information into a medium that the community can use.
Muddiest Point: McLuhan's quote, "The medium is the message." I could be possibly over thinking it, but the explanation by Mark Federman does make it any more clear to me what McLuhan was trying to tell us.
"Lied Library @ Four Years: technology never stands still"
- Paper covers: Evolution of Lied Library, Ongoing costs, challenges of Lied, the hopeful future of Lied.
- Major installations and programs:
- EZ Proxy, DiMeMa/OCLC's CONTENTdm, OCLC's virtual ref, Serial Solutions A-Z, SFX, the student laptop program, Uniprint, and Millennium
- Biggest project to date: Replacement of every desktop PC (over 600 units in 2003)
- Planned every possible step they could think of, and even thought ahead of possible problems that they would run into
- How they did from July - August 2003 in time for the staff to be trained and the students arriving for Fall classes
- Assembly Line installation and assemblage of computers
- bar coded outgoing PCs the day before that area of PCs was to be removed
- Keeping certain areas up and running, and limiting traffic and users around the computers that would be replaced the next day
- Costs - ever increasing, such as hardware and operating system support, vendors software, and the upfront costs of computers and other machines (such as printers)
- Challenges
- Computing Resource Management
- Make sure that students have computers to work on for schoolwork, such as limiting community user's time and the laptop program
- Space Management
- Biggest problem is library staff areas such as where to place new employees
- Security
- Theft - small number, but they want it at zero theft
- Network security - malicious software
- Equipment and Software glitches
- Seem to want to be perfect for the paper states that Lied enjoys 99%+ uptime for all systems
- Future
- Maintaining current systems and finding the money to maintain them or upgrade the programs
- Projected enrollment growth will create challenges for supply and space in Lied
- Wireless Connection in library
- Unknown impact of the change in library leadership
- Conclusion:
- Continuous effort towards refinement and expansion
- Stay at the cutting-edge of technologies in libraries
- Remain a distinctive premiere academic library and a place where all students want to come to do their research
Muddiest Point: The technology/computer jargon throughout the entire article confused me. Also, the article being from 2005, I kept wondering how far this technology that they speak of is behind our current programs and installations, and what the new technology is - that I don't know about either (or could understand).
"Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture"
- The meaning of information technology literacy compared to the meaning of information literacy which is the content and communication of these technologies.
- Believes that it is crucial for people to know and understand both forms of literacy in order to successful function in today's society (these new technologies are the main way to receive and send information)
- Goes far beyond traditional textual literacy that one learns as a basic in school
- Information Technology Literacy
- Two perspectives on information technology literacy:
- one that focuses on the use of the tools through one's skills
- second - one that focuses on the full understanding of these technologies
- Questions why one would need to know about information technology literacy?
- students must know both in order to be prepared for today's jobs and "all walks of life" (4) because technology shapes the way we live and how we view the world
- not understanding information technology literacy would limit ones skills
- Another key of information technology literacy: "understanding the principles of how the technology world works" (3)
- needs to cover a broad view
- needs to appreciate and understand how history, economics, social and public policy issues play an important part in information technology literacy and technology
- Information Literacy
- In learning about information literacy, the knowledge needs to encompass to the full range of all types of communication such as image and video
- People need to have an understanding of how information resources are a part of technological and economic structures and how they interrelate
- Range of issues related to information policies that a person must know:
- legal, social, economic, ethical, privacy, authenticity, integrity, and management
No comments:
Post a Comment