Tech Enthusiasm Peaks at PLA

Proving that nearly everyone admits to a touch of technolust when it comes to the latest and greatest, Leonard Souza gave his popular “Technozoo” presentation to a packed audience at the 2008 Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis, March 25–29, and again as an encore presentation later that same afternoon. Though not often related directly to libraries, Souza’s presentation focused on the tools and gadgets librarians likely will see (or already have seen) crop up at their facilities, including Apple’s iPhone, the Sony eBook reader, Amazon’s Kindle, Nintendo’s DS handheld gaming device, and the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop, as well as software tools like Joost, a peer-to-peer television portal, and Skype, the integrated phone, video, and chat communications tool.

Nearly every new product description from Souza elicited a chorus of oohs and aahs from the audience, but Souza’s live demonstrations of the iPhone and the DS drew particular interest from the crowd, as did the live Skype phone call demonstration, complete with video of both of the parties involved. Souza exuded an infectious enthusiasm throughout as he navigated from one “totally awesome” product to the next and was grounded only briefly by the occasional question from librarians centering on real-world privacy and piracy concerns.

Similar enthusiasm greeted “The Cutting Edge: The Latest Information on Web 2.0” panel presented by Michael Stephens of Dominican University, IL (and cowriter of LJ’s The Transparent Library column); Jan Maney of Pima County Public Library, AZ; and John Blyberg of the Darien Library, CT. Stephens’s succinct advice simply to “say yes” to innovation easily linked the three panelists’ presentations, all of which demonstrated the myriad opportunities for libraries to connect with their communities digitally.

In adopting these tools into their online repertoire, librarians were asked by Stephens to “speak in a human voice,” while Maney similarly urged librarians to “meet users as individuals,” as their patrons move more and more of their social and professional lives online. Libraries should be “a part of [people’s] daily lives,” Maney said.

Even Blyberg’s focus on the arguments made by Web 2.0 naysayers carried with it the same implied sense of the “say yes” watchwords. Via a series of often humorous rebuttals to Andrew Keen’s blog manifesto criticizing Web 2.0 principles, “The Great Seduction: Eleven Unfashionable Thoughts About Digital Utopianism,” Blyberg presented a nuanced rhetorical argument in favor of unfettered access to both content and modes of expression. “We have a duty to participate online,” he said, “and we also have a responsibility to understand the ecology of information in which we’re participating.”

Librarians’ very eagerness to participate online may be exactly what is pushing their communications infrastructure to capacity, contended the panelists of “The Digital Revolution and Libraries—Where Are We and What’s Next?” In relating the findings of the multiyear Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study and the American Library Association Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP) Connectivity Project, presenters Denise Davis, Lynn Bradley, and Bob Bocher revealed the dual connectivity and budget issues libraries face as they try to meet growing technology demands.

While the good news is that Internet access in libraries is above 99 percent, many institutions still operate without dedicated technology budgets or staff. Additionally, the 2007 preliminary findings indicate that Internet connectivity may now be the norm, but many libraries also report bandwidth shortfalls owing to either budget limitations or having already maxed-out their data connection. And while 65 percent of public libraries offer wireless access, 75 percent of these same libraries “reported shared access with [wired] desktop computers,” essentially cannibalizing data access speeds on their own networks.