Numbers

I was reminded today about the importance of people. We often have to justify our libraries in terms of numbers.  It seems like we are always crunching numbers to show how we are doing.  But if those numbers are not tied to people, then they are meaningless.  It is easy for us to get distracted from the qualitative nature of what we do.  The student working on a paper is not that worried about our statistics.  He wants answers and a good encounter.  There is that saying, "Keep the main thing the main thing."  Our main thing is service.  We still need our statistics, but they must come in second to our patrons.

Technology is a part of our lives now.  In libraries we are inundated with news of new resources, devices and formats.  As soon as we invest in one, it seems to change and become obsolete.  How are we to decide which technologies to use?

There are two approaches.  The first looks at all the cool new technology and asks, "How can we use these?"  This approach starts with a technology and then builds policy and services around it.  As a result, if asked why they use a particular technology, they may respond that everyone is using it, or that it is just cool.

The approach that I like best is what we see in Instructional Design.  It asks. "What is our objective," then asks, "what technology best serves this objective."  Those who favor this approach to technology see technology as a means to an end.  In this way, the use of technologies is more strategic.

Technology is a tool to serve us.  We should  not be slaves to technology. In the end, we cannot use every social networking site, every format or every new thing that comes along.  We have to be judicious.

New Year (In June)

In many academic libraries, the new fiscal year starts in June.  I have spent much of this week planning  for the next stage or our new library.  All of a sudden, it struck me how strange it felt to think of a "new year" in June. I felt out of time, like I had just missed Christmas and January 1.  Or perhaps it felt like I had just lost half a year.  I am living in two times, and right now I am feeling a bit of dissonance.  It is almost like waking up from a vivid dream only to find that the week that you dreamed about did not happen.

Still, I am excited about the coming year.  We will have some new firsts: new students; new resources; new challenges and new spaces.  In the (paraphrases) words of the professor from Back to the Future, the future is not written yet, it can be anything that we want it to be.  Happy New ( Fiscal) Year to all of you academics!