I don’t know, but it’s what I’m thinking about thanks to Jason Griffey Think about the services in your library, and the amount of effort and resources poured into making your services as good as they can possibly be. What if good enough is really enough, and instead we should be expanding our range of services instead of seeking perfection in any single one? How does that change the way libraries operate? He cites a Wired magazine article – The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine which he quotes …it happens to be a recurring theme in Good Enough products. You can think of it this way: 20 percent of the effort, features, or investment often delivers 80 percent of the value to consumers. That means you can drastically simplify a product or service in order to make it more accessible and still keep 80 percent of what users want—making it Good Enough… Aaron Schmidt responded in the comments This is great, mostly because just yesterday I was thinking about just the opposite! My thoughts aren’t fully formed but my basic line of thinking is that good enough services are probably wholly unremarkable and don’t leave
Posts Tagged ‘ Technology ’
“Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.”
I’ve never been fortunate enough to hear Jessamyn West speak and based on Jenica’s notes from last week, I’m really missing out. Some of my favorite bits The digital divide is real, and our system for technology education scales very badly. There are economies of scale in most library work – processing 30 books does not take 30 times as long as processing one book – but teaching 30 people about the internet and computers takes 30 times longer than teaching one person. Libraries have become the social safety net for many Americans to learn what the tech-savvy think of as remedial technology skills, but the project doesn’t scale. “We are living in a future that they are not that interested in.” “Librarianship both is and is not sexy. Exploit that. Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.” These are some really good things to think about, but we’re supposed to do more than just think – “Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.” Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later
What programming should a library science student learn?
I recieved this email from one of the students in the Collection Development class I taught at Mizzou and thought in addition to giving my answer I’d open it up for the hive mind. I had read somewhere, it might have been on your blog in fact, that it might be a good idea for library school graduates to learn some web design languages. I am thinking of picking up in my spare time (whats left of it) some web design language and I’m not sure what would be appropriate in the library setting. Which brings me to my question. Do you have any suggestions as to what technical languages or proficiencies would be good to pick up? I have thought about HTML, ColdFusion, ASP, and JSP, but beyond knowing a little bit of HTML/XML I am unsure what would be most useful. What do you think? What would you like to see on someones application if you were hiring? What advice can you give Chris? Some other blogs that have addressed this Why every Library Science student should learn programming Technology education and the “real world” Core skills: Curiosity technology advisory Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed
We’re barely treading water, what will keep us from drowning?
Start with this, I did Now think about this – How do libraries fit into this picture? As far as I can tell the technologies we’re struggling to adapt to and implement might very well be outdated by the time we’re ready to start using them. That’s not good. Right now technologies are running by and we’re still crawling to keep up. What does it mean? Maybe we can’t keep up, maybe we should stop focusing our energy there, at least temporarily. Let’s face it we’ve been talking about the next gen OPAC for how many years? Would our time be better spent elsewhere? Maybe we need to look at changing our organizational structure and mindset first. Then we’ll be better equipped to keep pace. Perhaps becoming more fluid and ready to adapt much more rapidly to change as it happens? Because right now I see two problems The level of online service and interactions patrons take for granted is not being met by libraries. Not even the most cutting edge, front line, tech savvy ones. The technologies and trends the most cutting edge, front line, tech savvy libraries are preparing may not longer be relevant by the
Technology for Tight Budgets
Times are tight, and likely to get tighter, if you’re looking to save money talk with your IT department. They may have some helpful solutions. Take a look at the University of Missouri’s IT department suggestions – Technology for Tight Budges. Many of these can be used by libraries and other businesses looking to save funds. Investigate the Technologies Available to Stretch Your Budget MeetingPlace Audio/Web Conferencing SharePoint Online Collaboration Tools IT Training — In the Classroom and Online Captivate e-Learning Authoring Tools Voice over IP (VoIP) Go Green, IT! Power Down and Virtualize Server Virtualization Videoconferencing TelePresence Smartphone Technologies Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
Reading
