In Love With Tech?

We must span a new digital divide—between those librarians who lust after the new and those who have no time to

By Chrystie R. Hill -- Library Journal, 12/15/2005

Falling in love with technology is very different from being in love with our purpose as librarians—in the work that we do with each other and for our patrons. I’ve heard some people say that if you’re not into technology, maybe it’s information that really gets you going. After being engaged daily with other library staff, mostly around technology support and information, it’s clear to me that it’s not about either. It’s about us. We will only survive and thrive as professionals and institutions if we stay connected to each other—and to our real aim in figuring out all this info-tech stuff after all.

This perspective has been largely influenced by my work as a librarian and online community builder at WebJunction.org. Recently, WebJunction sent out a call to members for stories and questions from library staff interested in or using online networking tools as library services. We called for the full range of possibilities—from simple, do-the-trick library web sites to blogs, wikis, and discussion groups supporting library collections, programs, or other activities. We received a slew of creative and inventive solutions to the challenge of creating community for our patrons through online tools. (You can check out the September 2005 Focus on Online Communities for more information and examples.)

Still, many replies to this inquiry came in from WebJunction members who asked very plainly: What is a wiki? And then, perhaps with a hint of embarrassment: Am I already supposed to know what a wiki is? I did a bit of checking around, and it turns out that even the tech-savviest among us are slightly embarrassed or concerned when they hear about a new technology, or even web site, for the first time.

Joe Anderson, the content manager at WebJunction, and I ruminated on our blog about these emails. We know that many public libraries are struggling to stay open, keep staff trained, and keep the public connected to all types of information, collections, and programs. Only 52 percent of rural residents, for example, are Internet users.

A few of our tech-savvier colleagues, however, remained dismayed. A familiar theme reverberated through the LIS blogosphere: You’re a librarian, and you don’t know what a wiki is? How hard is it to look up? One colleague reminded us that a Google search would quickly return a number of hits pointing directly to useful wiki definitions and tools. At first glance, I agreed.

On second thought, however, I wondered: Are these expectations fair, especially for those in resource-deficient areas and not as in love with technology as I am? It’s certainly possible to stay in the know, and our admonitions to do so may be well meaning. Still, there’s a sting here. This attitude creates a new kind of digital divide between us as professionals and colleagues, a divide that will ultimately affect our patrons far more than their own economic differences. If librarians can’t work together to figure out which technologies to use and when, libraries and their services will quickly become irrelevant…to everyone.

For the most part, I’ve seen a strong commitment to resource sharing and collaboration among my colleagues. Librarians, in general, are pretty cool about helping each other. But there’s an aloofness that creeps into our interactions when it comes to the technology tools we use to do our jobs. Since when would we push a Google search rather than have teach-learn conversations with one another—even if it is over email? As tech-savvy librarians, we can fall more in love with the technologies we use than the purposes they serve. It’s sometimes hard for those of us who use it, maybe even geek-out over it, to remember that technology is a tool—only a tool. What we do with these tools is the important part, and with resources scarce and change plentiful, it may be easy for us to get sidetracked by bells and whistles. Our colleagues in small, rural, or undersupplied libraries bear the brunt of this attitude because their technologies, or methods, are considered “so two years ago.”

Technology is not new, but the breadth and scope of advances in the last year can make us feel as if it’s a whole new challenge. As part of the same focus on online community building for libraries, for example, WebJunction invited three librarians doing cool online community projects for their libraries to present their programs through a live online conferencing tool. Andrea Mercado talked about how her library uses an online photo service to store, display, and publish library-related images; Aaron Schmidt discussed his library’s community information and teen services projects; Regan Robinson introduced herself as a librarian who remembers carbon paper, then talked about her library’s web site, 24/7 reference services, and blog—all used to engage patrons further in library services. At the end of the program one of the session attendees commented that colleagues in her library always respond to new technology ideas with “that stuff is just for the kids.” Then she asked Robinson to provide her with a quote she could take back to her colleagues. Tell them you’re from the carbon copy days, maybe they’ll listen to you! I wondered if carbon paper hadn’t once turned our world upside down.

Regardless, it was clear throughout the remainder of the program that many of the attendees had the tech-savvy to get online and figure out what these tools are. They’re not apathetic or scared. They just want to hear from their colleagues already in the know about what works because they don’t have time or staff to spare. In libraries where we’re often answering as many questions about the rest room as we are about collections, policies, and public access, some of us simply don’t have time to be the tech-savviest star in the sphere. We should be able to ask each other questions, without apology, without hesitation, and without embarrassment. We should be able to depend on our colleagues for answers that are helpful, informative, and delivered with kindness.

Refocusing on the intention behind our method and plans for handling new technologies with scarce resources is one way to close the divide between the haves and the have-nots among our colleagues. This cannot be done with a Google search. It cannot be handled with an article in Wikipedia or even with our favorite tech-star’s most recent blog entry. To make a real difference in libraries and for our communities, we need to keep talking to one another.

Let’s say we continue helping each other make better use of existing technologies through further syndication and open communication. What kind of space would that open up for us? Using RSS to syndicate the collective knowledge of our colleagues is sure to spur the delivery of library-created content to our communities, perhaps making us relevant to some for the first time. Maybe developing a wiki for best practices in libraries will lead to a library catalog that allows annotations and suggestions from patrons who’ve checked out the item before. Perhaps jumping on an online conferencing tool to chat with a library colleague will prompt the idea that libraries, in a world where content is increasingly community-driven, might want to connect patrons not only to information but to one another.

In building professional community for and with one another, we’re likely to find new ways to engage with our local communities—making us a trusted, necessary, new kind of intermediary to the types of information that are sure to drive the business, social, scholarly, and leisure pursuits of our future online. We might even come up with something better for the web than a wiki, a blog, or web conferencing combined. As the custodians of human knowledge and the purveyors of all kinds of information, it’s not too difficult to imagine that we’d also influence the tools to help us engage in these activities.

Sure, I’m still a bit techy, a bit geeky, a bit of a player with “the next killer app.” But I’ve gained new perspective on these tools as a means to an end. Now I know it’s not the tools that I’m really in love with: it’s us, our intentions, and our willingness to help one another develop and adapt new technologies for enhancing the work we already do. You might say I just “like” technology in that “going steady” sort of way.