I have been admiring a fellow librarian's work - Steven J. Bell; I first found a title of an article and have been searching for it for about a week. Finally giving in and doing an ILL, although I admit I am trying to see what I can go without to subscribe to Library Issues. Going through his website (again) led me to one of his blogs the ACRLog. In his post on Feb 22, he notes a comment from an Assistant Vice Provost at UC Berkely, Barbara Gross Davis. This is where the OMG comes in, along with a lot of disappointment.
She made a comment as a guest speaker at the Chronicle Brown Bag on Feb 21 that libraries are a place to go for non-tech learning.
"There are many other areas that don't necessarily involve technology that are influencing how people teach, such as formative/early feedback, classroom assessment,learning in groups even in large classes, library based research assignments, and so on."
Hello? Has she been in a library lately? She apparently is working on a new edition to a book she wrote in 1993 Tools for Teaching. Guess she isn't including a library as one of those tools, or a place to find the tools. I hope she is being bombarded with information on what libraries have to offer.
As Mr. Bell points out, even if an instructor states no digital items, they still must use the computer to access the OPAC! Perhaps UC Berkeley still uses card catalogs. (I have unfortunately had the pleasure of working with instructors who won't let students use any thing digitial - no eJournals or eBooks. No matter how you try to explain to them that we have more e-items than print, etc - they don't get it. The most recent comment was "If I let them use the computer to do their research, they will be on there playing games. Don't tell me otherwise. I saw it with my own eyes." How does this instructor think they are going to type the paper - on an IBM Selectric. Again, I digress.)
I am working on a paper, and what will be the beginning of my dissertation on academic libraries and social networking tools. There are many who are incorporating them and other technologies into their websites. A recent article by Shu Liu in College & Research Libraries (Jan 2008, V69, 1) titled Engaging Users: The Future of Academic Library Web Sites looked at 111 ARL libraries and identified which ones had incorporated some Web 2.0 technology into their website. There are more research out there, not only identifying what is being used, but also why we should be using it. That is where my paper is focusing on - the why.
Ok, I got that off my chest - for tonight. I just was going through Dr. Davis's website and noticed something else. She states that the book she has outlined, her 1993 edition, is available as a eBook --- can't be, libraries aren't involved in technology!
I feel that my work as an academic librarian just took a turn towards urgency; I have been educating instructors and administration on what we do and how we do it, but I guess I assumed that the majority of them had a clue - I am thinking I assumed too much.
