I don't generally like sermons so, just ignore the subject line. but I thought of it because A. it's Sunday (I know, not very original) and B. practice essays are a lot like sermons - you're asked to talk about a particular subject and, so, in many ways the language and position are often black and white, cut and dry, there's little room for "I don't know" or "it could be this but it could also be this". Sermons don't often say "I don't know, it could be this or it could be that". Or maybe I'm just thinking of evangelical sermons....
...anyway....
Let's consider for a moment the major internet technological advances that have propelled libraries to the state we are in today. It mostly started in 1969 with ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency...net). Derived from ideas mentioned as early as 1962, the United States Department of Defense lead the way in building a system that used packet switching instead of the previously used circuit switching. Circuit switching is most closely identified with telephones. A single call ties up a circuit which then remains unavailable for any other use until that call ends. ARPANET's idea of packet switching meant that data could be communicated in packets to a variety of machines at once thus enabling multiple communications simultaneously. The system grew slowly for many years, and other "nets" were also developing tools for better mass communications, though all were used mostly spearheaded by researchers for research and remained a disjointed jumble of independent networks. These "nets", like ARPANET, had long since developed email and file transfer protocols by the time "the internet" emerged at CERN around 1989/90 (maybe as late as 1991/92 depending who you believe).
Introduced, and developed in large part, by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the use of hypertext or http ("text on a computer that will lead a user to other, related information on demand") along with the internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was essentially meant to connect all the analogous networks that had developed since the 1960's in a way that made each available to the other simultaneously. What this meant, then, was that normal communication lines, like telephone lines, could open a world of information sharing to anyone who had access to "the internet" or "the network" by way of the internet protocol via service provider and a computer and could deliver and receive information from any other terminal, or terminals, that used this same system. It's perhaps important to note that Berners-Lee purposely opened this technology to the world, ensuring that it's use could be had by those outside global research communities.
However, many believe the true start of "the web" began in 1993 with the introduction of the first graphical browser (GUI) interface MOSAIC. MOSAIC allowed images to be embedded along side text rather than served independent of the text in a separate window. This was a significant step in that, most "non-scientists" could "surf" the web in a way that seemed most like life, as if thumbing through a book or newspaper (though not nearly so linearly).
Once MOSAIC came aboard, the technological advances seemed to speed up at a rate that was, and still is, mind boggling. In fact, Mooer's Law from 1959 suggests that as technology develops it will double every 18 months and the price of computers/drives/storage/etc. will come down. Experience says this is true though still not always economical for the common wo/man (hence the digital divide, but that's for another day).
Once MOSAIC and it's successors were introduced to more and more people, their behavior with the technology developed. This new knowledge placed demands on developers of other internet technologies like Email that evolved into instant messaging or chat clients (like AIM and jabber), listservs, message boards, and "groups" like yahoo!Groups. These things enticed users to become more involved in online activities so that still more advances and tools were developed thus giving rise to Web 2.0 and technologies like RSS feeds, wikis, virtual spaces, mash-ups, podcasts and audio streaming, and more.
All of this has added up to be a major challenge for libraries in how we deliver services to users, the role of librarians, and how the library now identifies as "place". Reading rooms have turned into computer labs. The idea many users have now is that everything can be found on the internet, which, of course, isn't true, but that hardly matters if that's what patrons believe. It puts the burden on libraries to ensure good information is as available, if not more so, than all the misinformation that's out there. It has demanded that reference services find new ways of reaching constituents. For instance, reference may be place based but it doesn't have to be place bound - offering virtual reference services through web portals, usually through their host library's website. This also requires that reference librarians be especially adept with electronic resources as many databases and journals are now electronic products only and they're not always easy nor intuitive to navigate, even for the most hearty of veteran researchers (a small drawback to all this technology: the ever changing interface!). An idea that has been used in the past for virtual reference has been consortia virtual reference, texting, or "field hospital" reference services strategically placed around campus.
This new delivery system of information has also given rise to privacy issues and intellectual concerns. For instance, what do you do if you find a patron surfing child pornography sites? Some librarians are instructed to look the other way for fear of disturbing the very delicate private and/or civil rights of the patron. The U.S. Patriot Act allows the FBI and other government officials to confiscate patron documents if they so choose, again aligning the library and librarians against the very precarious patron privacy debate. And there is the idea of intellectual freedom which suggests that we each have a right to our own thoughts and ideas as well the research that goes into them and that no one, most especially libraries, should interfere with the research that may go into their derivation.
As mentioned earlier, one of the drawbacks to all this technology is what's known as the digital divide. Because an internet service provider and a computer that's internet ready are not the most economical of tools, financially speaking, it leaves a good portion of the population at a disadvantage for finding information. This is perhaps less so these days as the proliferation of the personal computer has exploded since the turn of the century. Never the less, there are those in less fortunate economic circumstances that stand to lose a great deal without such access. Libraries, some would suggest and rightfully so, are bound by our adopted ethics to serve each and every human regardless of race, gender, political or economic status. So it is with this in mind that a proactive approach to reaching these under-served patrons, especially in the public library realm, comes to play out. Again, offering services to entire users to the libraries is probably the most efficient and creative way to do it - coffee shops, free computer courses for children and adults, fun ways of waiving late fees like DDR games and the like, and, of course, good old fashioned print advertising in a way that makes people feel welcome. This is a huge topic in and of itself and how libraries can best serve the under-served in their communities.
And with that - I bid you adieu for now and prepare for a kick-ass SEC championship game. Go Hogs (Arkansas Razorbacks' coach is a KY Alum and a darn nice guy - how can you not want them to win? Oh, okay, Georgia did do a pretty historic job getting to the game - I love underdogs...and their coach was at Western KY for a good while - how could you not want them to win? Wait - didn't I ask that already?????)
...anyway....
Let's consider for a moment the major internet technological advances that have propelled libraries to the state we are in today. It mostly started in 1969 with ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency...net). Derived from ideas mentioned as early as 1962, the United States Department of Defense lead the way in building a system that used packet switching instead of the previously used circuit switching. Circuit switching is most closely identified with telephones. A single call ties up a circuit which then remains unavailable for any other use until that call ends. ARPANET's idea of packet switching meant that data could be communicated in packets to a variety of machines at once thus enabling multiple communications simultaneously. The system grew slowly for many years, and other "nets" were also developing tools for better mass communications, though all were used mostly spearheaded by researchers for research and remained a disjointed jumble of independent networks. These "nets", like ARPANET, had long since developed email and file transfer protocols by the time "the internet" emerged at CERN around 1989/90 (maybe as late as 1991/92 depending who you believe).
Introduced, and developed in large part, by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the use of hypertext or http ("text on a computer that will lead a user to other, related information on demand") along with the internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was essentially meant to connect all the analogous networks that had developed since the 1960's in a way that made each available to the other simultaneously. What this meant, then, was that normal communication lines, like telephone lines, could open a world of information sharing to anyone who had access to "the internet" or "the network" by way of the internet protocol via service provider and a computer and could deliver and receive information from any other terminal, or terminals, that used this same system. It's perhaps important to note that Berners-Lee purposely opened this technology to the world, ensuring that it's use could be had by those outside global research communities.
However, many believe the true start of "the web" began in 1993 with the introduction of the first graphical browser (GUI) interface MOSAIC. MOSAIC allowed images to be embedded along side text rather than served independent of the text in a separate window. This was a significant step in that, most "non-scientists" could "surf" the web in a way that seemed most like life, as if thumbing through a book or newspaper (though not nearly so linearly).
Once MOSAIC came aboard, the technological advances seemed to speed up at a rate that was, and still is, mind boggling. In fact, Mooer's Law from 1959 suggests that as technology develops it will double every 18 months and the price of computers/drives/storage/etc. will come down. Experience says this is true though still not always economical for the common wo/man (hence the digital divide, but that's for another day).
Once MOSAIC and it's successors were introduced to more and more people, their behavior with the technology developed. This new knowledge placed demands on developers of other internet technologies like Email that evolved into instant messaging or chat clients (like AIM and jabber), listservs, message boards, and "groups" like yahoo!Groups. These things enticed users to become more involved in online activities so that still more advances and tools were developed thus giving rise to Web 2.0 and technologies like RSS feeds, wikis, virtual spaces, mash-ups, podcasts and audio streaming, and more.
All of this has added up to be a major challenge for libraries in how we deliver services to users, the role of librarians, and how the library now identifies as "place". Reading rooms have turned into computer labs. The idea many users have now is that everything can be found on the internet, which, of course, isn't true, but that hardly matters if that's what patrons believe. It puts the burden on libraries to ensure good information is as available, if not more so, than all the misinformation that's out there. It has demanded that reference services find new ways of reaching constituents. For instance, reference may be place based but it doesn't have to be place bound - offering virtual reference services through web portals, usually through their host library's website. This also requires that reference librarians be especially adept with electronic resources as many databases and journals are now electronic products only and they're not always easy nor intuitive to navigate, even for the most hearty of veteran researchers (a small drawback to all this technology: the ever changing interface!). An idea that has been used in the past for virtual reference has been consortia virtual reference, texting, or "field hospital" reference services strategically placed around campus.
This new delivery system of information has also given rise to privacy issues and intellectual concerns. For instance, what do you do if you find a patron surfing child pornography sites? Some librarians are instructed to look the other way for fear of disturbing the very delicate private and/or civil rights of the patron. The U.S. Patriot Act allows the FBI and other government officials to confiscate patron documents if they so choose, again aligning the library and librarians against the very precarious patron privacy debate. And there is the idea of intellectual freedom which suggests that we each have a right to our own thoughts and ideas as well the research that goes into them and that no one, most especially libraries, should interfere with the research that may go into their derivation.
As mentioned earlier, one of the drawbacks to all this technology is what's known as the digital divide. Because an internet service provider and a computer that's internet ready are not the most economical of tools, financially speaking, it leaves a good portion of the population at a disadvantage for finding information. This is perhaps less so these days as the proliferation of the personal computer has exploded since the turn of the century. Never the less, there are those in less fortunate economic circumstances that stand to lose a great deal without such access. Libraries, some would suggest and rightfully so, are bound by our adopted ethics to serve each and every human regardless of race, gender, political or economic status. So it is with this in mind that a proactive approach to reaching these under-served patrons, especially in the public library realm, comes to play out. Again, offering services to entire users to the libraries is probably the most efficient and creative way to do it - coffee shops, free computer courses for children and adults, fun ways of waiving late fees like DDR games and the like, and, of course, good old fashioned print advertising in a way that makes people feel welcome. This is a huge topic in and of itself and how libraries can best serve the under-served in their communities.
And with that - I bid you adieu for now and prepare for a kick-ass SEC championship game. Go Hogs (Arkansas Razorbacks' coach is a KY Alum and a darn nice guy - how can you not want them to win? Oh, okay, Georgia did do a pretty historic job getting to the game - I love underdogs...and their coach was at Western KY for a good while - how could you not want them to win? Wait - didn't I ask that already?????)
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