Wonderwall

When the discussion turns to technology and librarianship, many of the professors I studied with used words like exciting and thrilling. In my two and half years studying at San Jose State University, I used Blackboard Instant Messenger, Elluminate, Desire 2 Learn, Angel, Second Life, Google Docs, ePortfolio and iCloud. I created a blog in Wordpress and Blogger. While teaching online courses at California State University, Long Beach, I used Blackboard. The former head librarian at the school where I work had each one of the campus’ library coordinators spend one hour a week manning the Meebo chat (which, sadly, is gone) and Portal. At the beginning of the new year, I will be one of the content editors of the school’s online classes in MoodleRooms. Also, I often check the RSS feeds from San Jose State’s SLIS, create and maintain Facebook pages, add photos to Instagram and Tumblr, and, on the rarest of occasions, check my band’s myspace and Fbook page. Exciting and thrilling, sure. Overwhelming? Definitely. I do not Pinterest or “tweet,” because with social media and all of its relatives I have to pick and choose which suit me best.

Annette Lamb’s article Sensible Approaches to Technology for Teaching, Learning and Leadership (2011) stresses that we (librarians) need to avoid getting caught up in technology. Her “sensible approach” is to connect, communicate, and collaborate with tools that befit you and your patrons. In Lamb’s article she offers specific technology tools to use like Webspiration, titanpad, and todaysmeet that she thinks are good for the teacher librarian.  These tools are helpful for a certain kind of profession (teacher librarian). The notion of finding a good social media, planning, or whatever electronic needs that work for the librarian or user, rather than using them all, is a good mantra to follow.

Keeping that in mind, though all of the technology tools are important, one must remember that technology is not the answer to all the questions. In a Shenandoah University study of students’ opinions and usage of social media, technology and library research, a majority of the students did not use wikis, blogs, or podcasts for their research, but found that emailed interlibrary loans were essential (Baggett & Williams, 2012, p.21). The public library by my house has a Facebook page that offers more information than does their website. The ebb and flow of each library is unique and the technology they choose will have some trial and error to it.