After reading The Future of
Libraries, Frey, T. I found I was discussing with others their
thoughts on the idea of written communication almost coming to an end
as 'all technology ends'. The point was brought up can speaking
and/or language as a technology become outdated. Frey suggested that
we would move towards a verbal society, is that not reverting back
the way it was. The fact is people will still need to know how to
read and write as computer programs that use voice recognition still
need to be first physically written and will always need to be
physically written. Voice technology has been around for decades
however it is currently still not that efficient. The top typists can
type at about 150 words a minute where as the average spoken words is
more like 100wpm which is a loss for productivity.
I liked the point made by Frey that
“Libraries need to become a resource for as well as the experts in
each of the new technologies.” I think that is our new role for the
future, offering classes or information on how to use your ipad,
skype or whatever the technology need may be.
Another point I had not considered is
the amount of fiction in libraries and 'reading for pleasure' being
given too much focus in school libraries. Maybe this is an area in
which e-books can address the libraries inbalance, fiction as an
e-book resource and a focus on non-fiction that aligns with subject
curriculum in the physical library.
I think it is important that we take on
the new roles suggested in Libraries 2020, Purcell, K. of
evaluators / filters of the quality and authority of digital
information. Too many times have I had student hand in work where
they have sourced answers from 'wiki answers' or 'ask.com' which are
often joke replies. I have even had a large number of students not
pick up what 'dihygrogen monoxide' was after completing their own
research into the 'deadly' topic. Even newspapers are publishing
mistakes because they are not looking at the authority of their web
source. This is an area where teacher librarians can help educate new
researchers.
Purcell, K., Libraries 2020: Imagining the library of the not to distant future, Pew Research Centre, June 7,2012 Presentation
Frey T., The future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation, DaVinci Instute, sourced March, 2013
Herring, J., Teacher librarians and the school library, In Ferguson, S. Libraries in the twenty- firsth century: charting new directions in information (pp.27-42), 2007
The Changing Face of Libraries; express library take a book for free or leave a book. Photo taken at the 'Little Library' in Melbourne Central, which is a small 1m x 5m shop.
Hi Hannah, a couple of things you might want to consider. Good Web design says that white text on a dark background reduces readability considerably. It is better to have black or dark text on a white or light coloured background. For easy readability it would be better to have the dark text on ahitw/light background in a box over the book graphic. Something else to consider is colour. Did you know that at least 25% of the population (and this percentage may be higher) suffer from some form of colour-blindness. This includes red-blue and red-green colour-blindness which these people see as muddy brown. It is one of the criteria considered when checking a website for disability access. The other point is that the graphic is supoporting the stereotypical view of libraries. Would you want to include other graphics? Overall this is a great site and well done. :) BC BC
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