Thing 2 Musings

Before I muse, I have to say that Blogger has gotten more complicated since the last time I logged on. It wasn't happy with my cookie settings (which haven't changed lately, so it must be Blogger or Google that's being fussy.)

One reading that struck me in Thing 2 was the "The Ongoing Web Revolution." Some comments:

• "We trust our staff, and we know that when we expect the best of people that is usually what we get." There have been substantial changes at my workplace in the last year or so, and trust has taken a huge hit.
• "A well-trained staff is the key to utilizing social technologies." For various reasons, we don't have much training right now. We are encouraged to go to conferences and workshops, I give full marks there, but for the ongoing technology tools and questions, we don't have many resources.
• I really think that 2.0 is important, and that we need to push ahead on this (I'm here, and I've been touching base with 2.o ideas for awhile now.) But it's sometimes an uphill struggle.

How has the Internet affected your use of time at home or work?

• At home, not as much. I'm married to a tech guy, but we have one computer monitor (many computers, but one monitor.) At home, he's online much more than I am. I do have a website I check every day, and I do online ordering and look up the weather, but I'm online much more at work.
• At work: I'm a mid-career librarian, so I can remember the dark ages when doing an online search was a Big Deal (modems, dial-up, BRS and Dialog information utilities, and do a good search because the meter's running!) It is fantastic that patrons have so many resources at their fingertips, and can get to many things in full-text from home or work (even in their jammies.) But it's a continuing challenge for them to find what they need, to know where and how to look. I spend most of my workday online in some way, shape, or form, with looking things up online (through subscription resources or free websites), teaching and helping users how to do it themselves, updating web pages, giving users tips on the quirks of various resources (scroll down and hit the grey button to get to the reports, the link to the full text is in the left margin, here's how to find that company report or industry analysis.) We have gone from days of "we may not have much on your topic, but we can order it if you have time" to "yes, we have the International Journal of Really Cool Stuff," and even the full text of journals I've never heard of! But we still have the challenge of getting people to their stuff.