Statement of Competence
Libraries have always evolved with technology. Since modern libraries developed their reputation for being community information sources, libraries have done their best to provide the most up-to-date technology available to their patrons. Books were one of the first, movies on VHS and then DVD, music on cassette tape and then CD. Some systems are currently working on a changeover from DVD to the more contemporary BluRay. Audiobooks on CD are becoming audiobooks on MP3. Advertisement for programming and events is performed on social media. Public use computers are not just to look up library materials anymore, but coveted by patrons to browse the internet. Providing access to an e-library with one’s library card is now commonplace and expected. These changes have been made, and continue to be made, so that patrons stay interested in their local library as technology continues to evolve and become even more of a staple in our daily lives.
One trend in current technology is reading books using an electronic device rather than holding the physical book in hand. This subject is controversial to some in the information science profession because of the social stigma surrounding it. There is speculation by those who are not immersed in library and information science that ebooks will replace paper books completely within our lifetime. One large impact this trend has on information professions as a whole is the disbelief that our jobs will even exist in ten year’s time. Another impact is dwindling attendance at the library when books are available for instant download. The same goes for music and movies: if someone has an internet connection and electronic device at home, why would they bother leaving to visit the library? Netflix streams movies, iTunes provides music downloads, and Amazon will provide an ebook within seconds. The largest difference is that all these services are available for a fee, while the public library provides them for free with a valid library card. The lack of cost is enough to get many people to continue visiting and using their local library, but the impact this technological development has had on information professions is even greater than alerting people to the fact that the library is free. It has inspired the movement of the e-library. Public libraries have once again evolved with technology in the last several years, digitizing many of their services and buying the rights to ebooks and magazine subscriptions, free streaming and downloadable music, and streaming movies. After a patron gets their library card (by physically visiting the library), all of these services are available to them through the library’s website for free. The patron may never visit the library again, but there is a good chance that they will. By using their desired services for free through their website, the patron sees advertisements for library programming and events every time they sign on. While they might prefer pressing buttons to turning pages, they are still aware that the only way they’ll get to participate in a book club, or allow their children to go on the Dewey Decimal System scavenger hunt, or attend a job fair, is by visiting in person. And they found out about those events on their way to streaming electronic content from the e-library.
Evaluating current and emerging technologies is a crucial skill to possess when working in library and information science. Technology is developing so quickly that it is important to know what will be useful to the library and what one could allow to fall by the wayside. For example, libraries often use social media for advertising their events these sites have become such an indispensible part of modern human consciousness. The tricky part comes when evaluating all social media sites to decide which would be the most useful for the library’s purposes. Facebook is more populated than Myspace as a general social media site. Tumblr caters predominately to teenagers. Instagram is for pictures. Reddit is a series of involved discussion threads. The list goes on to include hundreds of sites that may or may not be the way the library would like to present itself to current and potential patrons. The same goes for evaluating the many options in cataloguing systems, operating systems for public use computers, devices available for patron checkout, programs employees will use to perform their jobs to the best of their ability, and hundreds of other small decisions that add up to helping the library operate the best it can in a society overrun with technology. These decisions might mark the difference between patrons being interested in what the library has to offer, and choosing to spend the money at Barnes and Noble or Amazon instead. Proper evaluation of the myriad options is key when choosing information and communication technologies for the library.
Evidence
Using Technology to Excite Young Adults About the Library
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Description
My first piece of evidence for Competency H is a literature review that I completed for INFO 285: Research Methods in Library and Information Science during the Summer 2016 semester. “Using Technology to Excite Young Adults About the Library” examines fifteen peer-reviewed articles through the lens of turning the library into a more teen-friendly environment. Sections are entitled “The Teen Brain,” “Teen Technology Use,” “Teen Library Use,” and “Efforts Already Being Made” as well as a marked introduction and conclusion. The paper looks at how a library can entice young adults to use the sources and services available by looking at the way an adolescent brain works. It then compares young adults’ current use of technology to their current use of their local library to identify any overlaps. Finally, it uses specific examples from the literature cited to examine efforts already being made to include young adults in library activity across the country. In the conclusion, I argue that youth services librarians must be well-versed on basic psychology of the teenage brain as well as their use of technology on a day-to-day basis in order to understand how they currently use the library, and how they would like their library to accommodate them in the future. Finally, I note that there is a lack of literature in the field that combines all of these subjects into one cohesive study, which would be “beneficial to the discipline of youth services librarianship.”
Argument
This assignment illustrates my mastery of Competency H because I have effectively identified and evaluated both current and emerging information technologies. I have done this by closely examining young adult services and identifying a gap in the literature that it would benefit the discipline to fill. I examine several aspects of young adult life including their psychology which helps explain why they do what they do. This examination leads the reader into an explanation of the current way teens are using technology in their daily lives versus how, if at all, they use the library. In these sections I demonstrate my ability to evaluate current information technology and communication technology. In the penultimate section of the essay I further examine current trends in youth services librarianship by detailing what efforts are currently being made to make young adults feel more comfortable in their local library. One article makes the obvious point that technology can be used to entice adolescents into the library, while another notes that advertising a communal or social space could inspire young adults to socialize there. Trends such as the ability to receive text messages from the library are mentioned, as well as planning community programming based on popular gaming where young adults with similar interests can meet and play together in a semi-structured environment. It is also noted that the best way to give teenagers the library services they desire is to ask them and listen to their answers. By expanding on each of these points in “Using Technology to Excite Young Adults About the Library,” I feel that my mastery of Competency H’s emphasis on current and emerging information and communication technologies is well documented.
The Positive Impact of Anticipatory Design in E-Reference Collections
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Description
My second piece of evidence for Competency H is “The Positive Impact of Anticipatory Design in E-Reference Collections,” a position paper completed during the current Spring 2017 semester in INFO 210: Reference and Information Services. The paper presents a thesis explaining that anticipatory design would be a welcome addition to library e-reference databases as a way of helping users find their results more quickly and easily. It explains that this would happen by using a patron’s previous searches as a jumping off point to assuming what results they want to see. For example, if they previously searched for information on evolution, they would be presented with electronic resources about Charles Darwin the next time they sign on. The system learns a user’s preferences the more they search and access information, eventually resulting in a streamlined process that will get them to their desired information faster. The basic idea is the computer system saving the user from the arduous task of making the hundreds of tiny decisions they made last time, again. This frees up the user’s energy for making larger decisions, like picking an article to help them in their research, for the first time. The essay explains the concept of anticipatory design and then goes on to present three examples of how the feature would benefit electronic academic reference library collections. It concludes with a recap of the three peer-reviewed articles and two non-scholarly explanatory articles, and how anticipatory design would benefit an e-reference system by saving users time and energy so they can focus more on the information itself, and less on the act of accessing it.
Argument
This paper illustrates my mastery of Competency H because it explains the finer points of using an emerging information technology. Anticipatory design is not widely used in library databases, but in this essay I have demonstrated my knowledge of the system well enough to argue why it should be. The essay demonstrates my knowledge of what is currently an emerging technological trend, but what could grow into mainstream usage for e-reference libraries as libraries as a whole continue to grow digitally and explore new technology that could greatly benefit their patrons. It also explores the emerging trend’s potential impact on information professions as a whole, but more specifically on those dealing with reference and academia. That impact would extend to the digital information environment of an e-reference database, and to the physical environment of a reference or academic library. Users would find that including anticipatory design in any library database would result in happier customers who found their results more quickly, which would in turn result in those patrons returning to either the physical or digital library the next time they needed to look something up. This point recognizes the impact on all information professions as encountering more satisfied customers who have found their sought information with few problems. On the whole, this paper embodies Competency H and effectively demonstrates that I have mastered the concepts presented by the competency.
Meeting Teens Where They Live: Social Media as a Benefit to the Library
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Description
My third piece of evidence for Competency H was completed in the Summer 2016 semester for the class INFO 265: Materials for Young Adults. The paper begins by explaining a comic circulating social media in which people of each generation from 1840 to present day lament the fall of civilization due to technology. In the final square, labeled 2015, a young person attached to her smartphone tells the lamenting man to “Take a hint,” implying that people have managed to maintain adequate socialization in the face of technological development for centuries. The paper notes that this comic can easily be applied to the development of technology in libraries, and how they continue to stay afloat by keeping up with the times instead of drowning in a sea of paper when the rest of the world has gone digital. This introduction leads into an explanation of how libraries should “meet teens where they live,” or learn how teenagers use technology in order to provide them with what they are used to when they visit the library. Arguments include librarians becoming familiar with social media trends, digital advertising, and providing more electronically downloadable material. The paper concludes by recalling the tone of the comic mentioned in the introduction after succinctly summing up the arguments and encouraging the reader to make the library the “cool” place for young adults to hang out so that they want to use library services, and encourage their peers and family to do so as well.
Argument
This paper demonstrates my understanding of Competency H by describing my knowledge of current information and communication technologies. After the description, the paper speculates on ways to improve upon these technologies from the perspective of youth services librarians who want to interest young adults in everything the library has to offer. In doing this, it skims the surface of the deep subject that is emerging information technologies. Given the thesis, the paper needs to briefly explore emerging technologies because this is where teens “live.” They will be more likely to visit a library on the cutting edge of technology because it is where they will feel more comfortable. The paper also articulates how these emerging technologies will impact the environment of a public library. It does this by noting that utilizing emerging communication technologies like social media for interacting with young patrons and advertising events will have a dual effect: young patrons are more likely to see the messages when they are posted on a social media site where they spend a large part of their time, and the young patrons will be more compelled to interact with the library if it is done in a forum where they feel comfortable. This research essay demonstrates my proficiency in the concepts presented by Competency H because it details both current and emerging technological trends, as well as how using these trends will positively impact the information environment of the public library, more specifically the young adult area.
Storytelling Study: Myth
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Description
“Storytelling Study: Myth” was created in the Fall 2016 semester during the class INFO 281: Colloquial and Contemporary Issues. This section of the class focused on storytelling, and we performed several exercises over the course of the semester to cover all aspects of the craft including memorizing and performing stories for our classmates. Our final assignment in the class was a comprehensive overview of one type of storytelling or one specific storyteller, to be presented in a blog format. We chose our subject in the second week of class and were then encouraged to work on it throughout the semester so that we were not faced with this large amount of work in the last couple of weeks. The information presented on the blog was to be the equivalent of a twenty-page paper, but presented in blog entries. I chose myth because I had an interest in Greek and Roman mythology in elementary and middle school, and was excited to revisit the topic.
The blog is divided into sections such as “Historical Overview,” “Archetypes,” “Comparative Mythology,” and “Modern Interpretations: Urban Legends,” as well as an introduction, conclusion, and bibliography, each of which is accessible to the user with tabs at the top of the home page. Each page showcases several pictures that relate to the subject at hand. The sections “Most Famous Storytellers” and “Modern Interpretations: Urban Legends” include embedded videos to show the reader firsthand examples of these topics. After citing scholarly sources and fully explaining each subject in depth, the blog concludes that mythology and oral tradition have been central focuses of almost every culture since the evolution of human beings.
Argument
“Storytelling Study: Myth” shows my understanding of Competency H by demonstrating my proficiency in using information and communication technologies. In order to complete this assignment, I had to master several techniques of using the Blogger website and format each entry specifically so it was aesthetically pleasing and also presented all relevant information. Formatting the blog included learning how to embed YouTube videos and pictures into the text, include clickable hyperlinks in the bibliography, and make sure each tab was visible and understandable to the user. In completing this assignment I essentially used a current technological tool in order to create something brand new.
This blog shows my competency in the area of using both information and communication technologies, because a blog falls into both of these categories. It relays information to the reader because it is an in-depth study of a specific kind of storytelling. It delves into the historical significance of oral storytelling tradition as well as examining one specific myth in detail across four different cultures. This information was uniquely compiled using a variety of sources and is informative for the reader. A blog also falls into the category of communication technology because the writer is using it as a forum in which to communicate their knowledge or opinions with the reader. People write blogs on all subjects and in all voices, from scholarly to casual, all in the hopes of communicating what they have to say with others who will read and enjoy it. In my study of mythology I have used my knowledge about mythology to create an informative and communicative digital environment.
Conclusion
Emerging technology is arguably more prevalent now than it ever has been. Since the inception of the internet libraries have been working tirelessly to keep up with technological trends and developments in order to stay relevant in the eyes of their patrons. In my future career as a public services librarian, these concepts will be extremely relevant in my day-to-day operations. I plan to use my knowledge of the concepts presented by Competency H in any position I might secure working in the library and information sciences profession by staying aware of emerging technological trends and doing my best to pass that knowledge on to both coworkers and patrons.
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