First Readings

The three required reading for the first week follow a natural progression.  The first article "OCLC report: Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers" details the changing format of information. In the past, students and other information seekers went directly for scholarly journals and books.  This changed over time as students moved away from physical media and into a digital world.  The change in information delivery has seen its most drastic change over the last few years however, and it is no longer important for many students that their information come from a journal or book.  Now it is acceptable for people to get their information from social media, be they blogs or wikis or one of many other forms.  The "containers" of information is not the most important aspect of research.  It is the idea that the information is current and easily accessible that most.  This seems to be very true to most students I deal with day to day.  I spend a fair amount of time at Pitt's reference desk, and students seem to be surprised that their are sources of information out there other than wikipedia or the huffingtonpost.  For better or worse, this seems to be the way many students get their information. 


The following article, “Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture”details what this change in information distribution means for students and instructors.  Because information is found in new places, students must be made to be aware of this.  Information literacy may be one of the most important areas of study and instruction as time passes. Computer skills are almost a requirement for everyday life so libraries and other institutions must be prepared to help train this new generation of scholars.  This is one of the most important issues, to me at least.  The age of digitization was supposed to bring information access to everyone.  But what of the people that don't have the internet, or even computers?  The library system must be willing to train and give guidence to these people.  The blind or otherwise physically handicapped issue is very large as well. 


The third article, "Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still" describes the culmination of the previous stories.  Lied Library not only understood the changing views of research, they embraced it. Computer terminals were added, laptops are being loaned out, and students have access to the wireless network.  All of these things are necessary in the new world of information seeking.  There are also many more ways for information to be accessed.  The library joined a number of consortia to make sure various types of information would be quickly and readily accessible, even if it is not on site locally.  It is great that this library was able to adapt and embrace the new roles that libraries need to have.  But I worry that many libraries wouldn't be able to afford all of the things that Lied Library did in its upgrade.  This is a big concern in the new digital world:  that updating and upgrading may be cost prohibitive.