My favorite memories of the library from my adolescent years centers around using the card catalog and microfilm. I took extreme pleasure in searching through subjects of interest and wandering the stacks looking for my desired book. Nerdy but fun for me. There was pride in understanding dewey (and honestly as secret feeling of snobbery).
It took patience and skill to search the indexes for articles and locate them on microfilm. And I relished in the ease with which I maneuvered the machines.
These are tools of the past - a relatively recent past but it seems like ages. It struck me as sad when touring OCLC it was noted that the boxes of cards at individual workstations were the catalogs of the Oxford and Princeton University libraries being digitized.
Now as a librarian I am navigating an entirely different set of tools to access information. As we hurtle into the ever-changing world of Library 2.0 I find I am excited about the challenges but nostalgic for the library of my youth.
Becoming more and more transparent can be excellent for creating a more engaged community. Michael Stephans highlights these challenges and outlines a model for the librarian of the future in the OCLC Next Space Newsletter article titled "Into a new world of librarianship." Participating in Learn & Play allows the opportunity for me to embrace the Web 2.0 tools necessary for success as Librarian 2.0 (sounds like a superhero... maybe I need a cape!).
"Where did the cat go?"
14 years ago
0 comments:
Post a Comment