Now more than ever, it’s not so much the format in which the content is organized, it’s the content itself that consumers are focusing on during the information seeking process. This point is discussed in “OCLC Report: Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers (2004).” This is interesting, because we are seeing a definite shift in the way information is sought out, viewed, and processed. The once heavy emphasis on format (i.e. print materials as having more inherent value than electronic resources) is fading with the evolution of technology and communication capabilities. Such a change drastically impacts the role of libraries and information specialists in today’s society. We see this everyday in public, academic, research-based, k-12 school, among countless other types of libraries. I’ll be student teaching in an elementary school this fall, and will be curious to observe how elementary school children seek and process information, and the kinds of patterns they use to engage in this behavior. I completed observations at the middle school level last spring, and it was very much a Google-centric process. I think what’s so startling is the heavy reliance on Google for searching, and the instant results we have grown accustomed to receiving when conducting web-based searches. It’s interesting how these patterns can be observed in both school age children as well as adults.
With the explosion of Smartphones comes instant access to information. People are constantly connected to the Web and are seeking information via mobile devices. To compete with this cultural phenomenon, libraries must find ways to connect users with information using technology such as Smartphones, applications, and the like. Even the youngest members of society are connected. For example, at an elementary school where I completed a field experience, the librarian asked a third grade class if they had ever used Facebook using their parents’ account(s). An interesting discussion about Facebook had sparked this informal survey. More than half the class raised their hands. Many of those kids had connected via a smartphone. Now more than ever, information is being shared via weblogs and wikis, and many libraries are following suit with this format of information sharing. With the immediacy of the Web and quick search methods, information can be obtained easily and with very little effort. This is both exciting and terrifying for libraries. The end result is an overwhelming amount of information available for the user to sift through.
Libraries can take advantage of this conundrum by acting not so much as the place for finding information, but as the place to go to seek assistance with sorting through the masses of information in order to acquire actual knowledge. This is a huge and daunting task. It seems as though libraries can be a place to better understand concepts such as information literacy and distinguishing between high and low quality information. I really enjoyed the article by Clifford Lynch, “Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture.” I thought this article clarified an important distinction between these two types of literacy, a point that I don’t think is made clear enough in curriculum. It seems as though libraries of all types could really jump on this opportunity to help users understand the difference between these two forms of literacy, and the importance of each for living in a digital world.
The difficult question is: how exactly do we go about tackling these kinds of tasks? Do we need to offer patrons more classes that focus specifically on information literacy and developing good search skills, and how do we pull more users into the library when competition with information found online using Google is so fierce? It is a challenging time for libraries that is filled with opportunity as well as many difficult barriers to negotiate. Keeping up with current technology and finding ways to connect the user with technology in the library can be a bit challenging, a point well-emphasized in the article “Lied Library @ Four Years.” However it seems that today, there are simpler ways to keep up with said technology, because, for example, so many of the online tools we use are very user-friendly and intuitive. Plus, it seems as though people genuinely want to explore these new methods of communication (i.e. blogging, setting up wikis for projects, etc.) and are very receptive to learning new things.
