Reading Notes 1

Reading Notes for 8/30

OCLC report: Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers
One of the statistics that stood out in the OCLC report was the sheer number of project emails sent on a yearly basis. Dr He made a reference to Information Retrieval as the act of finding a needle in a haystack, and we just keep creating bigger and  bigger stacks. It is also interesting to note how quickly mobile devices have led us to expect constant access to the Internet from anywhere at anytime (even when it's not possible, like say from my sister's campground in Tionesta) and how that mobile access is in some parts of the world superseding the more traditional computer-based access because a cellphone is typically a lot less expensive than a pc. I think this change in access combined with our desire for instantaneous fulfillment is a major driving force between the development of micro-payment for micro-content. Basically so much content is being created so quickly and across many different formats, with  much of it also becoming obsolete at almost the same speed, that it's easy to see how difficult the task of meaningful information retrieval can become.

“Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture”
While Information Technology is the necessary infrastructure of Information Literacy, the lay user of most popular technologies right now (Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Google) have a very limited knowledge, if any, of how the infrastructure is designed and functions. I am not sure I really buy into the argument that future basic users of Information Technology will need to understand the technology infrastructure of a given program to use it successfully. As technology moves forward so rapidly, the companies behind its development are going to actively design with the user in mind, and the more complex their understanding needs to be the narrower that pool of users/consumers. Having a higher level of IT understanding will remain critical for those involved in Information Science, Storage, and Retrieval, but likely not for the general public because it doesn't make sense from an economic perspective.

Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still
Lied Library is a great illustration of the ways in which flexibility, connectivity (my first encounter of Internet 2), investment, good software and support, and creativity all have to come together to keep a technologically advanced library on the cutting edge. The costs are large and likely the first deterrent for many academic and public library systems, but the complications go far beyond the costs. Lied's success at bringing people in the door is them meeting their goal, but meeting that goal only increases the issues that crop up from such high use, from the need to limit computer use to the public in order to ensure computer use for the students to the way heavy use on  printers helps pay for their operation but conversely leads to their increased deterioration. Lied Library illustrates through hard- and software issues why it's important for those in the Information Sciences to have a solid IT understanding of the specific tech they work with at the very least.

On a side note, their efforts to create greater connectivity between members of their staff is a small-scale example of why global connectivity is so desirable. They were looking for an increase in communication as a way to foster problem identification and collaboration for creative problem-solving. It's all full circle.