Comments for Week 1 Readings

Lied Library Article
I am a reference librarian and interlibrary loan coordinator for an academic library at a small, rural liberal arts college. We also serve as a community library for a seven-county region. We have shared many of the same problems and successes as the Lied Library, albeit on a much smaller scale. After countless amounts of staff time was spent each day removing items such as downloaded software and custom wallpaper (too many embarrassing student photos), we recently purchased Deepfreeze-esque software to reset our PC's each evening. It has worked great so far. Our next major item to tackle is print management. We are currently HEMORRHAGING paper and toner and copious amounts of staff time is currently needed to coddle an aging printer population. After much experimentation with ideas such as fewer (yet higher-capacity) printers, print-management software seems they way to go. However, the cost of this software continues to be a barrier. We are also trying to find ways to balance the needs of our university and community patrons. As soon as the local elementary and middle school bells ring in the afternoon, we become overrun with game-playing adolescents. The in-house software developed by UNLV to show the location of available computers, and whether that user is a university person or a community resident, etc. is intriguing. However, it seems it could easy develop into something a little too Big Brother.

OCLC Content, Not Containers
In some ways I would qualify as a format agnostic. My mix-tape approach to musical enjoyment has led me to nearly forsake cd's in favor of iTunes. I give as much (or more) weight to certain online resources as I do their cousins in print. The one item mentioned in the OCLC article that continues to give me pause is e-books. I truly have a love/hate relationship with them as do, it seems, many of my patrons. In my experience, many patrons understand that there are intrinsic aspects of print materials that limit their availability and ease of use. Electronic materials can be free from some of these limitations. Before they actually use an e-book, these same patrons view e-books as having all the benefits of electronic materials (such as journal articles) with none of the limitations of print materials. They are usually disappointed. If we only have one copy of a particular print book on reserve and it is checked out, they will just come back later. No problem. If they cannot access an e-book because another patron has it checked-out virtually, they do not understand why. The same goes for printing. If you need to copy a couple of pages from a print book, you understand that it will take a bit of time to copy it page by page. However, the copyright limitations for our e-books also only allow the patron to print one page at a time. That is considered frustrating and irritating. I have had more than a few patrons simply request an print copy of an available e-book through ILL rather than bother with it. ILL has also allowed me to experience the "love" side of this equation. There has been several instances where Google Books has saved me when a patron requests a copy of an old, obscure item. I simply send them the link to the full-text of the (out-of copyright) item and they are thrilled. We both love the immediate availability, ease of use, searchability of these texts. Plus, they are free! What librarian would not love that?!

As an aside, some of the terms this article provided in the "The New Vocabulary" section of this article were completely foreign to me. Fleshmet, anyone?

Clifford Lynch Article
I agree with Lynch's opinion that too much emphasis has been placed on a learning exeperience that results only in the acquistition of a new skill-set. Even though the article is ten years old, I find it even more relevant today than when it was authored. The "pervasive" technology he talked about has grown exponentially as has our reliance on it.
It also appears that the higher-ups at my current institution also agree with Mr. Lynch. The research instruction I provide to our library patrons varies greatly from that which I received as an undergraduate.