{"id":82682,"date":"2014-10-14T11:30:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T16:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82682"},"modified":"2014-10-16T19:48:53","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T00:48:53","slug":"librarians-technological-literacy-and-those-who-get-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82682","title":{"rendered":"Librarians, Technological Literacy, and Those Who Get Left Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Marian Mays, Former Senior Editor, INALJ UK<\/a>, Nunavut<\/a>, Yukon<\/a>, Saskatchewan<\/a>, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Librarians, Technological Literacy, and Those Who Get Left Behind<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"marian_mays\"<\/a>The common person would assume that all librarians are extremely tech-savvy. Sadly,\u00a0this isn\u2019t always the case. This weekend, I attended the Montana Library Association\u2019s Annual\u00a0Fall Workshops. While there, I overheard many librarians laughing about their complete lack of\u00a0technological literacy skills. Surprisingly, one of these individuals was even a library director. I\u00a0bit my tongue, but I was tempted to step in and suggest that these librarians take steps to improve\u00a0their skills. It\u2019s no doubt that everything public librarians do requires an intermediate level of\u00a0technological literacy. Most positions in special libraries require an advanced level. Are we, as a\u00a0profession, leaving some librarians behind?<\/p>\n

The question that I pondered after my initial surprise at these comments was one of\u00a0responsibility. Who is responsible for this lack of technological literacy among librarians? Is it\u00a0the individual, the workplace, or the professional association? I don\u2019t believe the answer lies in\u00a0one place. Instead, I think that we, as librarians, must take shared responsibility to ensure that\u00a0our colleagues can adequately serve their patrons.<\/p>\n

The technology illiterate librarian should not be ashamed about their lack of skills,\u00a0especially if they have practiced librarianship before the digital age. However, librarians should\u00a0not take pride in their lack of skills and stubbornly refuse to improve. Those who seek out\u00a0professional development generally take pride in their work and are searching to improve. If this\u00a0is not the individual\u2019s motivator, then the librarian should reexamine their career choices.<\/p>\n

The librarian\u2019s workplace should also take steps to ensure that all librarians are kept up to\u00a0date. If a staff member\u2019s lack of technological literacy is affecting their productivity and\u00a0reference services, then technology training should not be optional. If the workplace observes\u00a0that the employee is struggling with a certain type of device, such as tablets, then this workplace\u00a0should provide the funding for this employee to received specialized training. If the\u00a0technologically illiterate individual is a library director, then they must acknowledge the\u00a0example this sets for their staff.<\/p>\n

Professional organizations such as the American Library Association or state library\u00a0associations should also make efforts to ensure that the quality of the individual librarian\u2019s\u00a0technological skills is high. Most conferences offer a wide variety of technological workshops,\u00a0but workshops centered on basic skills are rarely presented. Professional organizations must\u00a0begin to offer more foundational, basic workshops that ensure a high level of technological skill\u00a0among their librarians.<\/p>\n

It takes a village to raise a librarian. Technology helps provide open access to\u00a0information, which is a fundamental aspect of the American Library Association\u2019s Code of\u00a0Ethics. No one is required to use technology at home, but it should not be questioned in the\u00a0workplace. Our patrons need the skills of individuals who can help them navigate the waters of\u00a0the digital age.<\/p>\n

Basic Technology Resources:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/libguides.hacc.edu\/techhelp<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.gcflearnfree.org\/computers<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.monster.com\/about\/b\/how-to-help-reluctant-employees-build-basic-technical-<\/a>
\nskills#.VCxtuxaM_aM<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.makeuseof.com\/tag\/top-8-websites-senior-citizens-obtain-basic-internet-computer-<\/a>
\nskills-si\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Marian Mays, Former Senior Editor, INALJ UK, Nunavut, Yukon, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Librarians, Technological Literacy, and Those Who Get Left Behind The common person would assume that all librarians are extremely tech-savvy. Sadly,\u00a0this isn\u2019t always the case. This weekend, I attended the Montana Library Association\u2019s Annual\u00a0Fall Workshops. While there, I…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":82683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4387,5978,3602,5946,5900,5977,5955,6372,5174],"class_list":["post-82682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-nova-scotia","tag-inalj-nunavut","tag-inalj-prince-edward-island","tag-inalj-saskatchewan","tag-inalj-uk","tag-inalj-yukon","tag-libraries-and-technology","tag-marian-mays","tag-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/marian_mays.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lvA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}