Monday, August 6, 2007

Week #6 - Delicious? Disgusting

Alright, so I looked at this Del.icio.us thing. Don't like it, don't get it. Its for the slacker on the go. Sure it can help you find some useful links like the eBay typo search, but really...I am having a hard time seeing how this can assist a librarian in finding ANYTHING.

The discussion of tagging is very important though. Every page needs and uses tags for search engine reasons. Technorati simply uses technology that has existed since the birth of the web browser and search engine. Meta Tags are what tells search engines what your website contains, and in order of relevance. This also resulted in the fake pages filled with advertising and your keyword inserted into the websites generic layout but some handy little javascripting. Tags are the reason why you never put something on the Internet you don't want other people seeing (naked pics, recordings of you singing, private journal entries, personal bank records). Knowing how these things work is great knowledge for a librarian and can help get around loopholes in the search world (typos, multiple spellings, multiple names, foreign languages).

This Web 2.0 stuff is really the need for integration, as people rely more and more on portable devices as they make their lives busier and busier, or as I like to say "turning japanese" (reference to the song by The Vapors, though the song is supposedly about pleasuring yourself). Libraries can take advantage of this with a few ideas. Branch to Branch instant messaging, pocket PCs with direct access to the catalogs, a streamlined, mySQL and PHP based cataloging database to simplifly and speed up the circulation processes that would operate through web browsers, that could even even allow check out of items with the pocket PCs while still in the stacks. Customers could actually use GPS devices to find RFID tagged items in the branch. RFI could be used with GPS to diagram on a grid of the library where titles are located. One system to do it all, one system to crash to bring it all to a halt. What we must look at is the need of the library visit to be fast, efficient, and reliable. The library is not the place where people go to sit and read for hours anymore. The 1900's mindset needs to go. The library is nothing but an errand on the list with going to walmart, buying gas, taking the kids to practice, and stopping by the grocery store to get dinner. The only people that sit in the library for extended periods of time are the homeless and those without babysitters. Falling technology prices has placed a PC in every house, services like Netflix and TV OnDemand has taken out the need to go to the video store or the library, and sites like amazon.com has made it easier to simply buy books. Barnes and Noble, and other big box bookstore chains provide a calmer, nicer, more comfortable environment to sit an read. The library has a lot of competition, and looks to be losing. The library can win this, some simplification combined with actually upholding policies, and paying attention to services provided vs time required elements, and of course, education and fighting the fear of technology. Really I think it boils down to a simple fear and intimdation from technology developing. It is important that the computer doesn't make jobs easier or faster, but streamlines processes and allows for multitasking. It only does what you tell it.

1 comment:

Mama Otta said...

OH NO! When you say "don't get it" do you mean you don't get it (question ??) or don't get it, don't bother? I was hoping you would "help" me on this one. Purposely skipped this and went on to something else. Talk to ya soon.