I can’t remember what started the conversation, but yesterday a couple of my colleagues were talking about how they just can’t keep up with all the new stuff that’s happening – changes to databases, wikis, blogging, new software (depending on your perspective, software that either lets you do great things, or software that you have to learn how to use that allows you to do things you never wanted to do before, and life has been fine thankyouverymuch!), new everything, all the time.
One of my colleagues said that she’s just given up even trying to keep up. This was not said with any venom or bitterness or despair, but very matter-of-factly. And yet this particular colleague has been involved in a lot of major projects, over the last few years, involving technology. The other colleague was just really frustrated at constantly having to wrestle with software and computer problems.
These are not people who hate technology, necessarily. I’m trying to be very careful how I depict them here, as they are colleagues I have a great deal of respect for, professionally, and I also like them (I am very fortunate to work with people I like, I think). Yesterday’s conversation brought home to me how important it is not to get too carried away by technolust. I somehow ended up with the job of looking at all the so-called Web 2.0 developments and how we can use them at our library and sometimes I feel like I am surrounded by this maelstrom of development and constant change and everyone else should be too! (The antidote to this feeling, I think, is for me to cut down on the number of blogs I monitor, or at least stop checking Bloglines so often in the course of a day… but that’s another story.)
Anyway, while still reeling at the revelation that Colleague One has given up on trying to keep up with all the Brand New Things out there, I read about one librarian’s experience of presenting a training session to her colleagues on the trifecta, blogs, wikis and RSS, and how they were less than interested, even skeptical. This made me think of my experience last year of showing my colleagues my ideas for our team wiki, and how these ideas were really well-received, even if some were nervous at having to learn more new stuff.
What I did was set up a wiki and collect a few different bits of information and documents on it, with the aim of showing them how we could share information and collaborate on projects using it, and they immediately saw the potential. We’ve had a few problems with version control (Word does a really bad job of tracking changes to documents) and losing things, and I think our wiki could really help with the procedures, policies and reports we’re trying to write collectively. Now I’m working with two of my colleagues (one of them the colleague who was complaining yesterday about computer hassles) on getting the data we use on our team wiki, and they’re actually enthusiastic about the possibilities, and getting the rest of the team to use it. I guess the moral of the story is that it’s not enough to be impressed by the whizz-banggery – the technology needs to fill a need. If my presentation had been all about how wonderful wikis are, it probably wouldn’t have worked. Wikis are wonderful, but I needed to show how they can be wonderful in our specific situation.
Yesterday evening I attended an ALIA meeting (planning for the conference in September) and people were complaining about how our professional association needs to do better if it wants to attract members and be relevant and useful to the profession. Now I’m a bit stressed at how I’m going to convince people that blogging could be a great way to develop our professional relationships and foster our professional conversations…
Categories: Web2.0, librarianship
5 Comments
I find myself in the same situation. My colleagues (whom I also like and respect) are often resistant to the new technologies out there until I can show them how they can be relevant to their own jobs.
Keeping up is something these colleagues find hard to do, and I find myself in the role of some sort of person-that-informs by running regular professional development show and tell sessions for them
I think it is no longer possible to keep up with every aspect of librarianship. I don’t have time or inclination to read scholarly journals anymore (bad me), but I do spend about 15 mins a day reading some blogs that help me keep up in the area that is mostly relevant to me. And the only conferences I can benefit from are those that provide their podcasts freely since my family/financial commitments prevent any actual attendance.
I think it’s worse than that; most librarians don’t *want* these new things upon them; they’ve spent years trying to cope with the levels we had back in 1990, and they’re fighting to keep it that way.
I’ve been preaching, teaching and whinging about new stuff, new processes, new anything to battle the problems of staleness, to no avail; it’s all too scary. Librarians are some of the most conservative people in the world, with a few exceptions.
The funny part is that I figure it is every persons own responsibility to stay afoot and updated with how to do our job in the best possible way; there certainly isn’t a lack of problems for us to solve, yet when it comes down to actually doing anything we go with the same old tried and true (and slow and conservative and bad) descissions we made 10 years ago, because, after all, we’re still here, right?
I can theorise that public service is partly to blame for this behaviour, but I’ll also chalk it up to the taxonomical thinking which leaves very little flexibility to change things around. I think the only remedy is for fresh young people to come onboard and force changes over time; I don’t see much evidence of librarians themselves take much responsibility for our patrons. *sigh*
Hi Penny and Alex, thanks for your comments! I wanted to respond straightaway yesterday but that would have violated my self-imposed Thou Shalt Not Comment While At Work tenet. (My caution is probably completely unneccessary, and I should probably scrap this rule.)
Nice to ‘meet’ you, Penny! 🙂 I agree that it is really tough trying to keep up with everything happening in our profession, which is why blogging has been so good for me. It’s like an extended conversation with lots of people talking, about all sorts of things, and at all sorts of levels, and it’s something I have a lot more control over (as opposed to email list discussions which I find just overwhelming and too difficult to keep track of).
Hey Alex 🙂 I don’t know what causes it, but I agree that for many librarians, process and procedure becomes a mire that we cannot get out of, even if it’s drowning us. But that’s not everyone – there are folks out there who question and think about Why Things Are The Way They Are and even dare to suggest that we could do things different. But so much has been invested in the system and changing is threatening. (A colleague and I have a joke that goes along the lines of We paid for and implemented this and we have all these procedures, so we’re sticking with it and DON’T you dare tell me it doesn’t work/our users hate it!) I don’t know what the solution is… Some organisations are waaaay more resistant to change than others, too. I’d tell you to move out West but the jobs can be few and far between… (oh, and when are you going to blog again on shelter.nu? 🙂 )
Hi CW,
Hmm, blogging again. Not sure. I think I need to overcome my dislike for the way the library manages things. The biggest reason I stopped blogging was because it was turning into a whingefest for disgruntled geeky librarian-wannabe, i.e. me. But I have been thinking about starting up again rather soonish.
Oh, and yes, I agree with your comments. 🙂 Funny how half of us crave change while the other half fights it. Maybe we should split them apart?
Well Alex, you don’t have to do that (be a disgruntled geeky librarian-wannabe that is) – just be you 🙂