Week 9: Thing 23 -- Thoughts and reflections

Monopoly Ship at sea
Originally uploaded by Mamluke

Those of us who work in libraries stand in a pretty weird spot in the information landscape.

We (generally) aren't the ones out there making technological discoveries or breakthroughs.

Nor are we like (some of) our public--wandering around without a map, hoping someone will help us, but mostly afraid to ask for directions.

We're kind of in the middle. We bought a map. We can point out all the places we've already visited and, more importantly, we can see all of the places we have yet to go. We're comfortable with travel; we just want someone to tell us what boat to get on. At least, that's how it feels to me.

With technology, I know just enough to know how much I don't know. That can be kind of scary, but it is also what makes a program like 23 Things so beneficial.

I don't have time to try every single new thing, but if someone tells me...here's one new thing that's worth your time this week...then it is less daunting.

What do I take away from this? The most important thing is confidence. Stumbling through these tools and discovering that I can't really break anything diminishes anxiety.

The other thing that I take away is something we learned way back in the beginning: the importance of play and its role in learning.

A familiarity with 2.0 tools is great. It's nice to understand the language that some of our patrons are already speaking, but I guess the next step is figuring out how these tools can enhance the work we do.

How can we integrate them into our daily work? Our websites?
Which tools will reduce workload or improve accessiblity and which tools--while shiny and cool--will just add another unnecessary hoop for patrons and staff to jump through?

These are all great and exciting questions and, having completed 23 Things, I feel more comfortable joining that conversation.