Week 23: the Finale!

I felt like a naysayer on a few of the exercises, but never really meant to be one. I think that this is a great training tool and really should be required for all entering staff so that they can have a basic knowledge of what advances are happening in the tech world. the majority of topics that we went over will end up being a fad or will not last long as something new will come along that is bigger and better. (example: goodbye Evercrack, hello World of Warcrack).

Even with this knowledge that most of the topics will be short lived, they are still very important to know about. It is even better to be able to use them, which is what this exercise is about. Kudos to HCPL for doing this. When do we start to build the learning tools for Library 3.0:)?

Let’s answer a few of the questions provided.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Probably the RSS feeds. I am tech savvy, but never used this function before. I read my rss feeds every day now. I choose to do it straight from the browser rather than an online site as there are less steps this way.

What ideas do you have for using these technologies at Harris County Public Library?
I kind of talked about this one with the topic. I would like there to be an encouragement for our staff to use the topics included as my guess is that most who took the IHCPL original training have not kept up with it and are now unsure about the technology again.

Biggest concern:
In watching the library video that was included in the Youtube exercise (the training video from the 1940's) one comment stated that, a lot of what was included in the video is still relevant today. I personally don't think that this is such a good thing. How many other professions would feel good about not changing that much in 60 years. I would love to see a graphical interface to the catalog. The online catalog, while easier to use, is still just a newer version of the card catalog. Is there a way to make ot more visually appealing (not by HCPL but by the companies that develop the catalogs). Do these companies make the online catalogs so that it is easy for the librarian to find something or for the patron? Why not showcase a library’s newest popular titles in the front of the catalog (visually)? We (the library field, not HCPL) should make it as easy as possible to find the most popular titles. Give the people what they want in an as easy to get way as possible. My 2cents for the future, anyways.