The world seems to have gone completely Dr Who crazy this week in celebration of the programme's 50th Anniversary! My daughter is a huge Dr Who fan and she has loved all the special events. So, when I spotted this video about a little Tardis Library in America I thought I really must join in the fun and share it here on my blog!
0 Comments
One of the sessions I attended on day 2 focused on 'Future libraries, future librarians, future skills: training for librarians for children and young adults". One of these presentations looked at the required skills for children and youth librarians in the digital age. It was stated that librarians must change from book keeper to dynamic agent - they must be well-trained, tech-savvy information experts who encourage the use of technology. The speakers had carried out a small survey of the librarians at the Library of Alexandria who decided that the following were the top skills required by children and youth librarians: Personal Skills: creative, adaptable and self-motivated. Professional Skills: communication & leadership, self-learning and professional development and possesses clear vision of integrating technology into library programs. Discipline-Specific: knowledge of user’s needs, technology literate, knowledge of emerging electronic resources and collection development awareness. More details can be found in the paper for this presentation: Required skills for children and youth librarians in the digital age When I attended the 'Riding the global wave: trends affecting libraries and librarians' talk by Ingrid Parent in May, she mentioned that the Trend Report would be launched at the IFLA Confererence. This was something I really looked forward to hearing about. The Trend Report looks across society at the trends that are affecting libraries and how they will affect them in the future. The five trends identified as playing a key role in the future of libraries and the information world are:
Ingrid Parent (the outgoing President of the IFLA) delivered an interesting speech about the Trend Report covering some of the advances and issues that are expected over the coming years and what impact they will have on libraries. Some points that I found really interesting were: Google Glass - The new technological glasses will mean that everyone wearing them will be able to conduct surveillance on everyone else, they can record what they see as they go about their daily lives. What will this mean for libraries that are seen by many as a safe place or sanctuary? How will libraries address this issue? In my mind this is a very serious issue for society as a whole. I know we are all recorded on CCTV many times each day but the idea that strangers who we walk past in the street can record us and share those recordings on social media is quite a disturbing prospect. Information mining - Data is collected on all of us to produce better services and big businesses know all about our lifestyle and habits from the data they collect. Some libraries are already following this trend but how could libraries make more use of data to improve and give personalised to their customers? When is the amount of data collected deemed to be too much? Search engines - Ingrid asked many questions about the issue of search engines - Can the results returned by search engines be trusted? Should libraries produce a competing algorithm or help people to have the information literacy skills to use the existing technology? Who is responsible for false information on the internet? How do libraries identify important cultural items on the internet? These are just some of the thought-provoking questions on search engines raised in the speech. I know we already have the issue of personalised search results from search engines like Google but maybe alternatives, like Duck Duck Go, that don't track you or use a filter bubble go some way towards a solution. Hyper-linked societies - Ingrid also spoke about the rise in surveillance by governments so nothing on the internet is private. Even democratic societies are filtering the information and if that is standard government practice, what impact does this have on libraries when they try to collect our digital history? These are just a few of the really interesting points and questions raised by Ingrid Parent's presentation on The Trend Report. A summary of the key points of the report can be accessed here: Insights into to the IFLA Trend Report Discussion on the Trend Report can be followed on Twitter at #iflatrends |
Suzanne Parfitt
I recently worked as Assistant Librarian at a British International School in Singapore. I've now relocated back to the UK and I am hoping to find a job that I enjoy as much as the one I've just left! Searching the ShelvesThis is my blog for interesting things to do with my work, my Continuing Professional Development (CPD), my studies or just anything that catches my eye relating to libraries, technology or books. Archives
October 2015
Categories
All
|