I received a phone call from a neighboring library yesterday. The pleasant woman on the phone asked if we allow patrons to use flash drives on our computers. I replied in the positive, and asked why they prohibited this. Guess what she said? She said that there was no policy because she’d never heard of flash drives before. She didn’t think flash drives would be a good idea because they don’t even allow patrons to use floppy discs in their machines.
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When I caught my breath I asked and found out that this policy is in place because they’ve had some troubles with viruses in the past. I guess one way to keep your public computers clean is to have them put to little use. To be fair, I just called and confirmed that they don’t have any computers with productivity software loaded. No Word, Powerpoint, Wordperfect, &c. Just Internet Explorer. So I suppose the issue isn’t just floppies or USB drives, but much larger.
I don’t mention this to pick on them or poke fun, but rather because I was utterly shocked about these restrictive and backwards policies. I can understand a library not having the funds for computers or software, but to have computers and be this extremely restrictive?
I’m wondering how this might change my perspective about implementing technology in libraries. How much of an anomaly is this library? My familiarity with things like IM and wireless in libraries and how normal it is for many librarians I know perhaps drastically skews my perception of things. Are there any articles, blogs or books being written about these very basic technologies in libraries? Maybe a number of years ago. It is sad to think that some libraries are frozen in time in this way.
Comments
there is a public library in the philippines that is very proud of its computer. the librarian actually points to the cabinet where the computer is and says that it’s under lock-and-key because it might get stolen.
“The tendency to hoard books had originated at a time when books were rare and difficult to produce. Before the invention of printing, it took years to copy a book. Copying the Mahabharata was work for a whole lifetime. Under such conditions, there was justification for forgetting that BOOKS ARE FOR USE and for overdoing the act of preserving them. But this tendency appears to have unfortunately developed into a regular habit, as a result of long practice. The situation was thoroughly altered by the invention of printing. And yet, it took centuries to overcome this long-inherited habit. The first step was to declare an amnesty for the books and set them free from their chains. But, even after they were unchained and were permitted to be taken out for use and handled by readers, there was not, for a long time, a generous recognition, on the part of those maintaining and managing libraries, of the right of readers to an unhampered use of books. The restrictions placed in the way of books being freely used were many; and it is only in recent years that a vigorous movement seems to have set in toeliminate all such handicaps. Such a movement has by no means become universal as yet.”—SR Ranganathan, The Five Laws of Library Science (1931); Chapter One, “The First Law”.
My educated guess is that this is not an anomoly, and ties in very well with the wonderful list of tech competencies shared yesterday by Sarah, Librarian in Black.
http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2005/05/technology_core.html
There are lots of library workers, “professionals” included, who are not able to check off a significant portion of these competencies. Those of us here in blogtech land are way ahead of the curve—I’d love to see libraries and librarians who are clueful engage in mentoring librarians/library workers who need some updating.
@Rochelle
I really like that idea too, but I can’t think of a way to start anything like this. Don’t you think a library would get defensive and rankled if another library approached them with, “Hey, you might need some help with your technology. We can tutor you!”
@luke
Right on! You know I love Ranganathan. That stuff gives me goosebumps.
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, and think that programs could be set up through consortiums. Our very sizeable consortium has consultants to help libraries out, and they offer training, but there’s something that’s not quite working. Too many libraries, too few consultants? And it’s not like it would be a storm trooper model of mentorship. “You suck! We’re going to help you whether you like it or not.” I suspect that there is an existing model for this sort of libraries-helping-libraries idea, and I’d love to hear stories or be pointed to similar projects.
Thanks to Rochelle for the props :) I do think that this situation is not an anomaly. I’ve sometimes heard it said that “tech-behind-ed-ness” is unique to small town, one-branch libraries. I don’t believe that to be the case at all. I know plenty of librarians who work for large metropolitan systems and who A) have limited technology in their branches and B) have very limited technology knowledge and skills. I think it has to do with who is on staff at the library—all you need is one tech-savvy person who is willing to try new things and share information with the others, and instantly you have a tech-progressive library. It also helps if you have help from the brass, but that doesn’t always happen…
This is what WebJunction is for. It’s a place for librarians to ask for information and share opinions, and it focuses on small and rural libraries. But, of course, you have to be aware of it to use it—and there aren’t many active posters, as far as I can see.
I have a couple of (hopefully worthwhile) comments. One is, do not be quick to condemn a library’s policies regarding what they do or don’t have on their PCs: “they don’t have any computers with productivity software loaded. No Word, Powerpoint, Wordperfect, &c. Just Internet Explorer. So I suppose the issue isn’t just floppies or USB drives, but much larger.” Just because a library doesn’t have these installed does NOT automatically mean that they are backward, techno-illiterate, and anti-patron. There are many situations in which having this additional stuff on publicly-accessible PCs is not a good idea or even plausible. Security being one of them. And I don’t think being concerned about security is “anti-patron.” Another reason is that the more tools you provide like these, the more support and troubleshooting are required (in general). Many libraries simply do not have the support structure in place, nor can they refocus their limited resources and budgets to obtain that kind of support, to keep such decked-out workstations up and running all the time.
In my own library we are running a thin client network (see the Technology section of the following webpage: http://tinyurl.com/cujh2 for more details if interested). We chose thin clients because of security and support needs. We purposely exclude word processing and other higher-end productivity software from these machines because we cannot readily support them. Plus we have a large computer lab a few steps away that includes all requisite software. Instead, we focus on providing a nice text editor and some other helper applications. This isn’t ideal but it works. Yes, we have had numerous patrons try to use these machines for Office-type applications and we are thinking eventually of moving to a new server for these thin clients that will be able to securely serve up additional applications, but this is expensive, time-consuming, and requires a lot of back-and-forth with our campus IT department. We are just happy to have rock steady Internet workstations—for that is basically what they are—that we don’t have to worry about constantly. That wasn’t the case with our previous iteration using regular desktop PCs, which were constantly down for some reason or another (including viruses, students fiddling with settings, etc. etc.). So in our case at least, we are not ignorant or techno-ignorant. We are making conscious choices about what we provide our patrons (including those from the community) that will give them consistent service. It may not be as full-featured as some would like, but at least we can guarantee that a workstation will be running most of the time.
Another comment I’d make about this whole discussion is general agreement that many librarians are woefully ill-equipped to handle technology. This is something I have dealt with my entire professional career (going on 14 years). It is incredibly frustrating and limiting when those who are “professional” just won’t or can’t get with the program (pardon the slight pun). In my current environment the lack of even the most basic technology savvy places a huge, huge burden on me and I am starting to really resent this. I can’t get people to even get to first base, e.g., when it comes to understanding blogs. I have professional librarians who can’t use Excel. I have professional librarians who won’t learn anything without it being spoon fed to them. This is ridiculous. I am worn out with having to do so much hand holding. Sorry for the rant.
Aaron, I agree that the way in which some libraries implement security comes off as draconian to patrons. I remember walking into a university library in Milwaukee, WI one time during a library conference and wanted to use my wireless laptop. I was told, no way. This was the answer even though the library was a huge sponsor of the conference. Now, I understand the reasons for their caution but it really turned me off as a new “patron.”
The struggle here I think, especially in academic settings, is a constant battle with usually centralized IT departments and the library. (Yes, my perspective is entirely academic as that is the only environment in which I have worked.) IT people want more restrictions and it doesn’t matter how that comes off to Joe Patron in the library. There is such a pervasive lack of understanding and respect for the library in this that it’s not even funny.
Another story to tell: Last fall it was not unusual for me to field 40+ inquiries each day from students about how to use the wireless network in the library. Btw, the library was the first wireless zone on campus and had been wireless for three years. I would go to the instructions on an internal website to print them off for users and found that our IT network manager had removed the instructions because he was going to implement a new wireless registration process “in a few weeks.” That process didn’t take place for another six months. When I protested about this gaffe, the response was, “What? I had no idea the library fielded questions about the wireless network! Why would anyone need to ask questions in the library about this?!”
Sigh.
As far as a staff education program, it’s a good idea, but one that just won’t see the light of day where I’m at. There needs to be more than lip service given to this, and as you noted about computer support, more resources devoted to it. That’s a tough sell, unfortunately.