2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers
The title of this article should be "The Death of Books" or "Are Books Obsolete?"
The article appears to be a propaganda piece written by the OCLC Marketing Staff promoting the notion that content, rather than container, is always the most important factor.
Key questions and comments:
*Is technology trumping human interaction?
*Is a brick and mortar library still necessary?
*Our culture is non-communally oriented and very much a do-it-yourself world
*Access to technology does have the potential to create a non-elitist, level playing field for all users if the so-called digital divide can be addressed
*Crackberry Culture - we live in a society that is addicted to the alluring qualities of technology
*Many users of personal digital devices appear never to be in their current physical space and moment. They are always connected to a device or communication with someone else on a device
*An overabundance and forever changing technological landscape is impossible to keep up with
*Primary source material is still important! Books ARE sacred objects - content does not always override container. Sometimes the medium is just as important as the message.
*Technology should not be mutually exclusive. There still needs to be a place for human-created work on paper
*Ray Bradbury's book "Fahrenheit 451" is about the burning of books. Will future generations never hold a book in their hands? Important cultural and historical information needs to be preserved non-digitally in order to understand the human condition.
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Article:
Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy
Key questions and comments:
How does the ever-evolving technologically complicated society we live in affect our daily lives?
How does the way and the type of technology taught throughout a person's life affect their life?
How important is information technology literacy to future success in school, work and one's personal life?
Technology reflects culture at the same time culture reflects technology.
What is the point of technology if we don't have a context within which to use it? In other words isn't an understanding of history and all that it encompasses - cultural, political, artistic, and scientific movements necessary?
One needs a high level of technological proficiency to survive in today's world. Is this bias towards certain ethnic, cultural and/or economic groups?
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Article:
Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still
This is a highly technological article that I found difficult to understand.
Key questions and comments:
Libraries = Technology
There is an overwhelming amount of technology at academic libraries and as a result the demands on finances, personnel, space and security to maintain that technology are great.
There is still a need for a brick and mortar library. The academic library remains an important and attractive place for students, faculty, staff and staff to use on a daily basis.
All those who work in libraries need to embrace technology on a certain level.
Library leaders need to be progressive thinkers to navigate through the world of technology.
1 comment:
Eileen,
I had many of the same feelings at times that you did reading some of the articles. The "death of books" feeling was washing over me for a while and then I began to think about it and realized I don't think we will be looking a that situation anytime soon.
I gave three reasons in my blog and they were 1)In 2004 there were 51,000 ILL request it is projected to be 57,000 in 2009...a little bit of growth there. 2)Why would someone want to have to pay for "tiered access' when they can have the book or article in their hands for free? 3) Was the last time someone holding an actual print item ran into any of the issues that we can run into using a computer or other peice of technology?
I like to believe that in this world of technological advances that there is still a need for that unique quality that only comes from sitting down and actually reading a book or a magazine. That you can't get from a computer screen.
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