Helen Blower's blog site LibraryBytes observes the transition from social media to social marketing in Web 2.0. She advances a community garden approach that is focussed on empowerment and collaboration.
There is much discussion there on the impact of technology on culture, particularly children. This raised some questions about class divide and our own preconceptions about the changing expectations of the information consumer.
The challenge for community libraries appears to be engagement and empowerment for the community as well as the provision of targeted and focussed information products. These objectives drive in opposite directions and are in themselves a dichotomy.
I can imagine it must be challenging in a very high tech world to encourage children to attend libraries and read when everything is so easily accessible online.
ReplyDeleteSome of my friends are teachers and this is one area of concern for them-literacy levels and utilisation of books and libraries (or lack thereof)
You both make some really interesting points, I hear from teachers and so forth that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get students to read now that everything is on line. Interestingly though I had the opposite experience recently. Last year doing recreational reading for young readers (great class, I really recomend it) I found it difficult to get the teenage fiction from my local library because the collection was consistently borrowed from.
ReplyDeleteIt was annoying at the time (and slightly embarrassing ordering teenage fiction when I am not a teenager) but it is a good sign that having an up to date and vibrant collection does get some kids reading.
Now that is interesting... Was there a bit of the keeping up with the Joneses going on there? A touch of the Vampire or the Wizard perhaps?
ReplyDelete