October 26, 2006

How Do You Prepare For The Future

A commenter asked me if I had "any suggestions regarding how to prepare our future librarians to work in the traditional, digital, and the new Lib 2.0 environment".

Some people suggest that Web 2.0 will make the future "easier". I believe just the opposite is and will occur. Web 2.0 technology can make our lives more efficient, but it can also overwhelm us with more information than we have time to absorb. More data just means more discussion and questions. I look at it like this. Our online resources are increasing in numbers, and the number of reference questions are not decreasing. They are also getting more difficult in nature though.

I think for new (and current librarians) the key is to learn the traditional resources and methods, and all the new technologies at the same time. Even with all the tools in the world, search methods and (for now) print resources are still critical.

Some suggestions:

• Let others sort through all the information for you. With blogs, wikis, forums, books reviews, and discussion lists, people are constantly summarizing or suggesting key sources. We cannot read everything, so what are others suggesting.
• Use RSS feeds to stay current. I can go through hundreds or even thousands of items in my RSS reader in one-hour. RSS feeds are much easier to sort and find the best information, unlike full emails or random Internet browsing.
• Work as a team. Another librarian and I formed a reading group in our library that has 10-12 members from our staff. One month we read a novel for fun and the next we read articles around a given topic. For example, one month we read various articles about IM, but no one was required to read all the articles (unless they wanted to). The discussion was one-hour over lunch and everyone learned a lot.
• PLAY! That is my motto. I always try new things. Even if you do not plan on continually using a new technology in the future, one of your users might be. Will you recognize their question when they approach you?
• Use the same tools we suggest for our patrons: citation managers and database alerts.

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