“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. … The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” (Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus”) I was talking to a librarian friend yesterday about my paper (which is shaping up to be about something in the area of adaptations in reference to the online environment) and we entered into a discussion about the digital divide. She explained her understanding of the problem as twofold: the access to technology (including tech literacy), divided along economic lines, and information literacy, a much wider societal problem. She contends that the online explosion of information has both enlarged the digital divide and “shined a spotlight on it.” Access to information is now generally easy and quick, but the information is not necessarily of good quality. In another class, I recently learned that user satisfaction is often independent of the accuracy of information retrieval. Users tend to care more about the ease of use than the quality of results. Most people require instant gratification, but care less about accuracy and relevance.
So, while some research shows reference librarians have actually improved their accuracy in the digital age (far above the so-called “55% rule”), this is sort of a moot point as far as most patrons are concerned. Information literacy—the finding and evaluation of quality information—has a marketing problem. It is not sexy. It is not easy to explain. It is not pleasant to be asked to wait because accurate, relevant information takes time to locate and verify. Meanwhile, bad information is always just a click or a voice command away. The speed of reference has, of course, improved with digital resources, but Siri and Google will always be faster. A second problem is that the people who need help with tech literacy (typically, but not exclusively, older people with low incomes) tend to ask for help only in response to specific needs. The bulk of a library’s effective response is therefore ad hoc and individual, solving the larger problem in a time- and labor-intensive manner. At my library, I teach a basic computer course that usually attracts only two or three seniors at a time. There are more people who come in looking for specific assistance who could benefit from the skills I teach, and there has been interest expressed at the local senior center, but these people seem to lack motivation sufficient to fill the seats. More and more, basic computer skills are required by potential and current employers, for communication with family and friends, for communication with and participation in government, etc. More and more people are being left behind along economic and generational lines. With these realities in mind, it is difficult to get excited about the possibilities and improvements that digital and online technologies make available to reference librarians. The better the offerings online, the more there is for those without access to catch up on, the more overwhelming it feels to many of them. Motivation and confidence decline as need grows. Communication and marketing need to take these psychological factors into account and compensate for them. This doesn’t even address the marketing problem of convincing the haves to share their tax money so that the have-nots can have access to basic technology, which, these days, equals access to information and influence—a voice in one’s community. I have no answers. It’s a Sisyphean task that must be met with untiring resolve and optimism. Individual needs must be met, programs must be offered, innovations must be proposed, even as the boulder’s mass increases and resolution appears impossibly far away. Buck up, all you librarians. There is nothing as noble as continuing to fight the good fight when the odds are against you.
0 Comments
|
AuthorJeffrey Babbitt, MLIS, is a graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University who is pursuing a career as a librarian in Michigan. Subject Headings
All
Inter- Library Loan004.02020025.431027.62090813.009Archives
June 2021
|