USF SLIS: East Coast Connection

All around us we here talk about libraries repackaging themselves for the 21st century, and redifining the role of libraries in community life. If that's the case than I think we need to get serious about the skills we need to develop to best serve our patrons.

Every library I've been to since I was 13 has MS Office on it's public computers. While most of us know more or less how to use it, it's getting more and more complicated. Sometimes it's so complicated that the easiest tasks are the hardest, becasue of auto formatting. All kids coming into the library need to use it, and many adults come in to use it for various reasons, including resumes.

Why haven't we made it a top priority that all library students, and library staff members are experts in the MS Office Suite? It would make such a good impression on people who need help using it. If we want to stay relevant we need to develop our skills where they are needed. I guess I am learning a lot in school, but oftentimes it's not that directly related to the day to day tasks I do on the job, and the workplace isn't much better for training. Maybe both assume that everyone should already be experts in Word and other Office programs, but I know I'm not, and I'm no techno-phobe late comer.

I'm taking a different tone here than I usually take. I usually say that we can't count on school and work to develop the skills we need. We need to have a keen eye, and develop them on our own. Honestly, that's still the case. I need to make more of an effort to become an expert in commonly used software aps, but it sure would be nice if those who were making the rules recognized what the patrons need, and how the staff can be best trained to fulfill those needs.

I have to admit to being what the annoyed librarian pejoratively calls a twopointopian. I believe that the library is in the midst of an exciting, transitional period. In large part due to new technologies, the library is being redefined as a space, and as a concept. I love this environment of change and experimentation, and I think it is healthy and necessary, but I think it is important incorporate some of the older library traditions into this new library world.

I led my first book discussion the other day. We read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. We had a group of about a dozen people, about half of which read the book all the way through, and the rest read enough of it to know what we were talking about. Now, it might have something to do with the controversial nature of the book, but we had a lively discussion about the book, current events, the election, environmentalism, and much more. The book discussion has been a staple of libraries for some time now, and for good reason. I think it is a perfect example of how in many ways the library of the 21st C. won't be that different from the library of the 20th. It is still a place where people come to feed off the ideas of others, digest them, incorporate them into their own, and discuss the changes in their mindset that occurred from this process. I'll just be sure to record the next one, so I can upload it onto youtube.

I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the present and future role of the library in society. Everyone seems to recognize that we are at a crossroads, but we can't seem to agree on which direction to take, some even think we should turn around and go backwards. This is a legitimate conflict, and I am looking forward to seeing how it plays itself out, but it makes the current working environment challenging, especially regarding how to handle noise in the library.

To shush, or not to shush. I understand both sides of the argument, so I am often paralyzed by my own open mindedness. Of course, by not making a choice I am siding with the noise makers, but as a library patron myself, I am quite sympathetic to those who are forced to suffer through the noisiness of their less than courteous fellow patrons. I am all for the library becoming a place for collaboration, but people have a right to come into the library to escape the noise.

 The solution, and everybody knows it, is to zone the library. If we really want to have a multi-purpose information center, we need to recognize that some of the purposes of the library are going to directly interfere with others. Libraries need to be divided into zones according to usage. Many libraries across the country have already recognized this need, but most of them are in the academic setting. Libraries no longer need to be a quiet place, but every library should have a quiet place.

Now that everyone has election fever, I think it is a good opportunity to envision how the library can play a more active role in the new information environment. As we all know, the way people interact with information is changing. People are much less willing to sit back and be spectators. They want to be able to participate. If the library is serious about being a player in this new information game, it is going to have to recognize different ways it can be a platform that allows people to interact with information the way they have become accustomed to. My idea is that libraries should have a community voice page on their websites. This page could have information about various local, state, and federal candidates and proposals. It could also provide live streaming of the debates, and allow people to post comments in real time. This idea could also be expanded beyond politics; maybe have a local history wiki, a graph that indicates what materials are most popular, or an independent movie database style discussion board. I've always been in love with the idea of library as community forum. I think it may be unrealistic to expect anybody to attend that type of event at the physical library, but I do think people would participate in a virtual forum. I think the library has too much history to become irrelevant, and I think it is our responsibility to envision the library of the 21st century. What does your vision of the 21st century library look like?

In this paper I explore the emerging trend of green design in library building. Using a wide variety of sources from the fields of LIS, architecture, and environmental science, I discover that there are a number of reasons why this trend is gaining momentum. I first define green building. Then I examine a number of case studies to see how green building strategies have been implemented in a real world setting. Finally, I explain why this movement has become so popular, and why it will be one of the defining issues in the LIS field in the 21st century.