What Happened to the Buns and Bad Attitudes?
Mary Alice Ball, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, IUPUI
Master of Library Science
University of Chicago (1984)
Most librarians never did fit the harsh stereotype seen in cartoons, and life has defiantly changed since technology came to libraries a few decades ago. While information technology people were often content to manage back office technology, librarians got rid of paper card catalogs and put their computers out front for the general public.
We're still doing the same thing but with newer technologies. Librarians have been involved with the Internet since its beginning and today set many of the standards that make it easier to find information. Whether you call it "folksonomy" of metadata or cataloging, librarians invented the concept and are better than anyone when it comes to sorting through the tons of bytes and bits to get to valuable information.
Angela Dubinger, a Master's student in the IUPUI School of Library and Information Science, works at the New Castle – Henry County Public Library. She recently created a Teen Blog for kids in the community and is always working to bring new technology into the library. She just came back from the conference on gaming in libraries and is planning to explore its use with her teen patrons. Watch out New Castle!
And how about that technorati librarian, Michael Stephens, Michael is the Special Projects Librarian at St. Joseph County Public Library by day and SLIS instructor by night and has been running a blog called www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/ for almost two years. If you want to find out anything about cutting edge technology it's a great place to start. St. Joseph County Public Library was the first library in the country to offer public Internet access. Michael and the rest of the library staff are totally into podcasting, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. They just set up a Wiki for subject guides. Like all Wikis the idea is to have all users contribute to the website, although only librarians will be allowed to edit material.
Closer to home, the IUPUI University Library now uses instant messaging to answer reference or computer support questions. So whether you walk into the library or IM a reference question from home, you're more likely to find someone connected on-line than you are to be shushed by that stereotypical Luddite librarian. If you want to learn how to join the ranks of the cutting edge technorati librarians and information professionals, stop by the office of the School of Library and Information Science in the IUPUI University Library.
Article reprinted with permission from the author and Indiana Insight, a publication of IUPUI.
