Do You Compute?

Yes, computers certainly have made their mark, and taken up some space in our ever popular libraries across the world. But having technology in the library to satisfy public need should not be the only goal of providing them to the public; we should be thinking ahead of how we are offering the service. Sounds like something to discuss at a conference eh?

Well it has been! and whilst I was a continent away and unable to arrange transport, sufficient funds, leave etc. some lucky people, such as the esteemed David Lee King were able to attend CIL2009 and take some lovely notes for us distance challenged types. Hell most of my favourite bloggers were there!

Reading his notes it's great to see librarians thinking about the future of how we can adapt technology to our current services, rethinking and retooling the role of libraries and the librarian. One post of interest was on training which I have found invaluable in crafting ideas for the new courses my own library will implement in the future. The most important thing I pulled from this was this:

Don’t put the cart before the horse - there are some things you have to figure out first:

• Determine what the need is first - what do they need to learn/to improve their jobs, etc
  
• Then determine who the audience is.

It also mentioned some great new tools, Talkshoe and WebJunction, and of course Twitter.

Of course, my favourite was the John Blyberg headed a presentation on Innovation Services & Practices at the Darien Library. It completely blows apart the way traditional library services are being offered by meeting users at their points of need, rather that simply persevering with a service that is old and clunky. Its really amazing to read the direction that they are going in; Open source, roaming(!!!) one-on-one reference, and Instant Messaging through Meebo (though they are moving to LibraryH3lp).

It is conferences like this that really give us time to think about what it is we are offering to the public. Rather than setting up a service they may be able to use and be interested in, why not spend the time finding out what your community would like to see, investing in their interests, adapting to their usage patterns. Most importantly Libraries should not being afraid to try new things, to emphasise a culture of change. So if your operating under an Imperial Death Star structure, blow it it Rogue Librarian Squardron Style!