Thursday, November 27, 2008

muddiest point

I understand why we all WANT libraries to have these huge presences online and in second life and in social networking websites. I get it - we need to reel in the new generation, convince them that libraries are important, justify our funding.

But is that really where we should be spending our time and money? I had this discussion with the head of Hillman Reference and it just seems like there are other more important places for reference librarians' time and expertise.

2 comments:

Dr. Pickle said...

I totally agree that there are way better things to spend time and money on. Besides, the data mining undertaken by facebook, as well as the sites connections with the CIA, seem to represent principles that are necessarily in conflict with those of librarians.

Oliver Batchelor said...

Although it is seemingly a waste of money, I think that additional benefits can come. It cuts down on the number of patrons at a crowded reference desk (if you're lucky enough to have one)