Technoblindness

I just came back from catching a presentation done by a multimedia class. I’m sorry I missed the beginning and the rest of the presentations as this was quite enlightening. In a project called Lifecasting, students filmed a number of reactions to situations. I was most enthralled by two scenarios which filmed people staging things left behind/being stolen and invasions of personal space in a public atmosphere. In the cases where people left items behind or staged a theft, the people around them were generally oblivious to the action happening. Why? Because they were on their cell phones or staring at their computers. The same occurred when people invaded personal space – computer screens seemed to act as a barrier to the actions and conversations around them. I find it fascinating that we’ve used social technology such as cell phones and computers and use them in such anti-social ways, blocking out the world outside our small personal world.

This has implications for work on a reference desk. I know I am tied to my computer and while I try to look up and keep an eye out for people needing assistance, I wonder how many I’ve missed because I’m using technology as a barrier. I will certainly try to be more aware of my surroundings while I’m using technology.

Speed Dating

Just finished my first speed dating meeting. No, it’s not what you’re thinking, at least, not exactly. We had visitors from another university visit us. We used the prinicples of speed dating to coordinate the meeting. People were invited based on the interests of the visitors and we had equal numbers on both sides. Everyone from our institution had 5 minutes with one of the visitors and then we moved on. We then had two longer half hour sessions in small groups. It was great! I need to work on my networking skills and this was a great way to ensure I talked with everyone. The biggest problem – 5 minutes ran out far too quickly! I learned lots from the visitors, about what they were doing and their questions made me think about what we’re doing. I highly recommend the speed dating meeting – it was fun and informative.

Common Look and Feel

The Government of Canada is rolling out a Common Look and Feel for all of their websites. While in theory, this is may be a good idea, I’m not sure I’m a fan of it. StatCan has started changing their site and while it has always been in need of work, I think this might be a step backward. I admit, I haven’t spent much time on the site to completely flush it out yet, but I am disappointed. The site search used to highlight the type of information, and it still does, but it seems more clunky. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I had just gotten used to the previous site. I will give it a shot but I’m not holding my breath. Take a look and see what you think.

New Toys

Thought I’d share this interesting bit of news with all. McMaster prides themselves on being innovative and the library strives to do the same, but we’re not the only ones on campus being innovative. Our bookstore, which I often frequent during breaks, has a cool new machine – it’s a print-on-demand machine. Apparently, we’re one of only 3 bookstores in the world who have one! It can print out a 250 page book in 5 minutes – pretty cool. They will print public domain items, giving them access to more than 1 million titles. Looks like the items being printed need to be scanned first, which means they will be parterning with the library’s kirtas scanner, at least for some items. Not sure if they are able to scan items there or not. A very intersting development on campus and I’m interested to see how much the new toy will get.

Me and my tag

After a discussion with a colleague, I decided to change my blog tag for fun. It’s been a couple of years on this blog so a change is well overdue. I’m thinking I should do this more often. If you’ve got suggestions (be nice please!), let me know.

In case you’re wondering, the new tag is in reference to my new dual-cord status. I shall always have power now!

The Culture of Now

Lately, I find that my level of concentration has not been up to its normal level. I think there are a lot of things that contribute to this – I spend too much time online (where I don’t read as deeply as I would with a book), too much time checking for new email and too much time with the tv on in the background. I’m sadly falling out of practice when it comes to deeper thinking and concentration and I hope to remedey this soon. I need to start unplugging more and sitting down and spending more than 10 minutes on one activity.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this relatively sudden lack of concentration. I love being online but I find that it is affecting the way I think. This turned my mind back to another topic that I often think about – history. My undergrad degree is in history and I continued my studies with classical history. I often find the historian in me emerging when I think about the Internet. Maybe it also has something to do with my work in government publications too. The Internet is changing the way history is written. We can not rely on the Internet to allow us to write history in the same way – we no longer have all of the documents that we once had. It’s far to easy to delete an email or an entire document. Webpages are constantly changed.

We have become a culture of now – we rely on tv, radio, the Internet for our information but there is little being done to preserve it. It is rare to go back and compare what was already shared, although there have certainly been more moves towards preservation through such things as Google Books and Internet Archive. I recently listened to a September podcast of CBC’s Spark (yes, I am behind on my podcast listening), which discussed the nature of the Culture of Now and the influence it has on us, including an interview with Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive, which I would recommend.

Libraries pride themselves on being guardians of our past – an important role. How do we compete with a culture of now? How do we make ourselves more relevant? Certainly we have a role in preservation but is there more we can be doing to help people see and understand in a culture of now? These are not new questions but they have been on my mind of late.