I spent my day hanging out with librarians! What, you say, don’t you work in a library and hang out with librarians everyday? Well yes. But these were not my librarians I hung out with.
I am attending my first library conference. The conference is a two-day in-town conference (which means cheap) on library technology. I’ve been to nonprofit tech conferences before and those were pretty geeky, but put techie librarians in a room together and the geek-o-meter goes off the chart.
Not all the people there were tech-types though. When the afternoon keynote speaker was demonstrating some cool programs he’d written and talked about how the library community needed to start working together on creating the semantic web and creating value added services the majority of people in the room got scared looks on their faces. And when someone asked what sorts of skills he thought librarians needed and he said we needed to know the principles of librarianship, relational databases, XML, indexing, and a programming language, a lot of people completely shut down.
Listening to the buzz in the dessert line afterwards it sounded like quite a few people did not like what he had to say. It is too bad too because I think his points were valid. The speaker was a 60ish librarian from the University of Notre Dame. He said that technology is making it so people can find information for themselves, they don’t need the help of a librarian any longer. But that doesn’t mean librarians are useless. Far from it. We still have an important role to play, we just have to do it differently than we used to. I found him to be exciting and inspirational. I heard others grumbling about how he didn’t offer anything practical. A hard to please audience.
In the morning I went to a session from a library that is using YouTube videos as part of their instructional sessions for new students. For instance, they showed us a video of the Blue Man Group on global warming and then asked us to pretend we were freshmen for a moment as they demonstrated how they got students to use the video to think about where information came from and how to tell if it was reliable and what they might do to research the topic further. It was interesting but I am not sure how it could be translated to a law library.
The afternoon session I went to on blogs and websites was not very good. I think most people in the room felt the same way because they started leaving early, sneaking out one by one.
I go back tomorrow when I get to attend a couple sessions that are hands-on learning. I am looking forward to that.
On a different note, posting for the next week or two might be a bit sporadic. I am having eye strain/fatigue problems from spending too much time looking at a computer screen. I also sit under harsh florescent lighting all day. I am starting to get headaches but even before that I developed an eye twitch. At first it was infrequent and mildly annoying but it is now frequent and majorly annoying. My optometrist will be checking my eyes to see if I need new reading glasses and maybe there is some kind of tint or something I can get that will help with the lighting. I also need to give my poor old eyes some rest while I can before my next school quarter starts up. Reading doesn’t seem to be an issue (thank goodness!), it is only florescent lights and computer screens that set my eye to twitching. I am turning 41 in a couple of weeks. Is this a sign that I am getting old?
I am a fellow blogger, up there in years. This is my first year back at school. I just wanted to tell you and the readers how needed the librarian is for a student.
I am so grateful, because I am still getting use to writing a paper. That is not the challenge, the technical part getting it on the computer. I needed the assistance of the librarian, for the technical support of writing my paper.
Thank g-d for the librarian. They have come a long way there was a time that librarians did reference and checking in and out of books. Things have changed.
I did not realize librarians had to know this. Unless this is college librarians only.
Just wanted you know how valuable you are.
First of all, I certainly hope that aging has nothing to do with the eye fatigue, seeing as I am four years older than you. And I agree with the keynote speaker. A librarian’s role has always been to get as much information is as needed into the hands of those who need it. That role is changing today, and the librarians of the future are still going to be organizing and filtering information in order to provide what they always have, just in different ways. I look at it this way: yeah, people have always been able to go to a bookstore and buy books on topics that might answer their questions. However, the most efficient way to get the answer they need has always been to call/visit the library.
I’m sorry to hear about your eye trouble and headaches. Definitely get that checked out. I’ve been putting off getting my eyes looked at but I really should because I think I’m getting close to needing reading glasses. Apparently they can now scan your eyes and create custom lenses that correct for every contour of your cornea resulting in sharper vision than you ever had before. Sounds just geeky enough for me! Good thing you have the Kindle for emergency no-eye-strain web surfing!
I’m really sorry to hear about your eyes – having a twitchy eye is no fun at all. I certainly get more strain than I used to, endlessly staring at computer screens, and fluorescent lighting is the work of Satan and should be banished from the civilised world. My eyes start to water as soon as I’m under it, and this has happened since I was a child, so definitely not an age-related problem!
Conferences are always quite jolly but contain significant longeurs, I find. Nicking off shopping over a compulsory session is my own personal way of ensuring they are enjoyable,
Hope the eye problem is corrected soon! Nothing could be worse for a reader/blogger than visual difficulties.
41?? Old? I have shoes that are older than that!
LOL!
Yes.
The confererence sounds interesting!
I love going to library conferences. Even if the sessions are not all that great, I always end up getting something out of them either by talking with other attendees or getting ideas of things to follow up on. Of course age has nothing to do with it. I’m a proud 41 year old myself with no twitches to report (yet!).
Well that sounds like a fun way to spend the day. Now are there also vendors and stuff like that? Free books by chance?!
Hope the rest of the conference goes well Stefanie and take care of your eyes. And, no 41 is not old at all why haven’t you heard that the 40s are the new 30s or some thing like that… says the chica who’ll be turning 41 in a couple of months
Seaside, thank you for you wonderful and kind comment! The conference had librarians from colleges, special libraries, high schools and elementary schools and public libraries. Things have changed a lot. Good luck with your schooling!
Emily, you are a librarian at heart! Why did you leave for publishing? It would have been great fun to meet up with you at conferences and possibly even at the same library!
Sylvia, thanks. Sounds like you have some high tech eye exams there! They aren’t quite so fancy here, at least not at my optometrist’s! Oh yes, and if I get desperate there is the Kindle on which I can make the text really big
Litlove, thanks. I do think Satan had a hand in the creation of fluorescent lights. And thanks for the conference tip. I am not experienced enough at them yet to know that sneaking out for a bit is acceptable!
Jenclair, thanks! It is rather disheartening but I have confidence that it will get better eventually.
Grad, oh, thanks for the laugh!
Carrie, oh yes, some fun ideas and new tools to play with!
Lisa, you are right, I have learned lots about libraries in general from talking to other people. And I am relieved to know that my twitching eye is not age related!
Iliana, there were vendors but since it was a library tech conference there were no book vendors. There were drawings for a netbook, a Kindle, and an iPod nano though. Unfortunately I didn’t win anything. I must have missed the memo about the 40s being the new 30s! I am sure then I just need a long vacation someplace warm and tropical
I was also at the Library Technology Conference. One of the workshops I attended was High-Tech toys. I’m not sure these gadgets will be all that useful for libraries, except maybe for the Kindle and other readers but it was interesting to see what’s out there. A handful of libraries are actually starting to loan out kindles to their patrons.
I hope your eyes are doing better and that they heal up quickly! Conferences can be fun, I think — inevitably a panel or two will disappoint, but it’s cool to hear the latest ideas and to meet new people and learn new things. I’m not surprised people froze up about the technology stuff — the newness can be scary, although I think people adapt much faster than they think they will.
41 is Not old!! However, sorry to hear about the eye strain. I’ve noticed that my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be–I don’t wear glasses, but probably should in some situations. At least you can still read! I hope everything checks out okay and they can give you something so the lights don’t cause more problems! Your conference sounds like fun and a good place to network. I got to spend a day in an Authority Control workshop last week. Strangely it was really sort of interesting, and while I’m not a cataloger, some of this stuff is starting to rub off on me!
Bookwormishnerd, really? Too bad we didn’t know beforehand and could make a point to meet. But then maybe we sat in some of the same sessions and didn’t even know it.
Dorothy, thank you. My eyes seem to be getting a little better since I have begun making the effort to not be on the computer so much. I think you are right about people adapting faster then they think. The speaker didn’t give much in the way of a concrete demonstration other than his own programs he typed into DOS which makes it hard to imagine what he is talking about.
Danielle, so nice of you to say so!
I don’t it is old either but my eye doctor keeps telling me that 40 is when eyesight starts to deteriorate. Authority Control does have a sort of geeky appeal to it. Better be careful though or they’ll recruit you to technical services before you know it! 
Sorry to hear about your eyes…hope they get better soon.
As for librarians and “relational databases, XML, indexing, and a programming language,” I say let librarians be librarians (it seems to me most librarians want to work in a physical library with physical books) and don’t try to make librarians into computer scientists/programmers.
Wil, thanks. You have a point. Unfortunately though and sadly, libraries aren’t about just paper books any longer. The speaker showed us some semantic web stuff he was doing with an electronic text of Thoreau’s Walden and it was pretty cool.