Here’s a story from the Times Argus about not only how computers and the Internet have affected patrons, but how it has changed the way library workers do their jobs.
Many research professionals embrace the new technological aspect of their jobs.
“Twenty years ago, librarians got stuck un-jamming copy machines,” said Mark Anderson, chief of the business science and technology division at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center, the largest public library in the world. “Ten years ago we were doing that with printers. Now, we’re free to concentrate on educating, teaching people about how to use online resources. We’re trying to get the technology to work for us.”
Who does he think unjams copy machines today?
Not just the internet
But all the things that come on the periphery…
Okay, here’s a little ‘tech grunt’ from yesterday afternoon alone:
Notice none of those questions involved using an online database… Actually to be fair, I did have a “searching the catalog” question that night and lead the gentleman to…The Reader’s Guide.
Everything new we introduce to the library setting is going to bring new perks, and new work… there’s just no two ways about it. I’m trying to prepare the staff for our new computer systems, if they come… Yes, things should get smoother, but the work load will just shift, and hopefully be more “librarian oriented” rather than “troubleshooting oriented”. I think, with anything mechanical, that’s the best we can hope for.
mac virus?
I am curious. What virus did the Mac have? They are pretty rare birds and I haven’t heard any reports of one for some time.
Re:mac virus?
Honestly, I haven’t gotten a chance to get in there and really look at it yet… I keep getting Norton virus messages whenever I pop disks from it into PCs and it is acting peculiar, so I’m inclined to believe it’s infected…
Re:mac virus?
I have never heard of any cross-platform viruses (ones that work on more than one kind of computer) so this may just be Norton acting up or a disk that was infected by a PC.
Well, I will butt-out now. My old sys-admin instincts were kicking in.
hmm, it hasn’t freed any teaching time for me… 🙂
While the web has increased demand for instruction and workshops, it’s also increased the sort of “handcuffed to the public access computers” drudgery for me as well. Maybe this library has worked out all their enforcement and tech support issues
gosh I find myself
un-jamming the copy machine all the time!