How are you using technology in your job?

My primary responsibility as Assistant Coordinator of Library Technology is to assist with the management of Aleph, the library’s integrated management system. This is the system that we use to order, catalog, and circulate our library materials and to provide and maintain the library catalog, the catalog that people search to see if we own a particular book, DVD, or CD. I primarily support Aleph’s Graphic User Interface (GUI), the client software that the library staff uses to do their day to day work in the system.

As a science librarian and general reference librarian I use our many subscription databases and online reference sources to help students and faculty access the scholarly and popular literature. We also have a growing collection of electronic books, online reference works (e.g. encyclopedias, dictionaries, citation builders), and special web sites that I refer students to and assist them with.

In what way has technology transformed your job?

Technology has certainly changed the way we do business in the library. All the data that we used to keep in paper files is of course now kept in electronic files (e.g. bibliographic information for our library materials and all of our patron information). As I mentioned above, we use an integrated library management systems to order, catalog, and circulate our library materials. We are also able to provide access to many of our resources and services over the Web 24/7.

Those who are old enough probably remember using a card catalog to search for a book in their library or remember searching the journal literature using volumes and volumes of printed indexes. Now it is second nature for most people to consult online library catalogs for books and videos and to search web based databases to find articles in journals and magazines, often with immediate access to full text. With the Internet providing a plethora of ways for scholars, experts, and laypersons to put themselves and their ideas out on the Web, one can easily access information in a variety of formats and of varying quality. As students adopt different technologies for communicating, the library has tried to keep pace. In the past, reference questions were normally asked in person or over the telephone. Along with all our other reference librarians, I now take questions at the library’s Information Desk via email and instant messaging.

What does technology add that would not be possible without it?

I think most people appreciate the fact that technology has allowed them to access a good share of the library’s resources and services even when the library building is closed. People can work in the comfort and convenience of their own homes and have access to library resources 24/7. Renewing or putting holds on books, accessing articles from electronic journals, requesting interlibrary loans, and receiving help with information literacy via web based tutorials can all be done over the Web without a trip to the library’s building.

How do you see technology improving learning?

Technology has put much more information at our finger tips than ever before. As I mentioned above, it is easier than ever before for scholars from academic institutions, experts from government agencies, and laypersons both young and old to disseminate and retrieve information. Students can more easily search for and access information that will help with their research assignments. Once they have integrated this information into their knowledge base they can then use tools like Microsoft Office and other productivity software to craft multimedia products that fulfill class assignments in new and creative ways. I recently surveyed a portion of our faculty about the formats they accept or require in fulfilling their assignments. More and more faculty expect their students to turn in papers that contain figures/diagrams or other graphics or to create PowerPoint presentations in which they embed audio and video files. My role as a librarian in a learning centered environment is to help students strategically search for and evaluate the sources of information they need. Along with their professors, I try to direct students to sources of information that are peer reviewed and reliable and to instruct them on how to distinguish scholarship from unsupported opinion. Aside from search strategy and source evaluation, I often find myself helping students in more informal ways to use the productivity software we provide on the library public workstations.

In what ways do you find technology frustrating?

The many search engines I use to gather information are most often a blessing, but sometimes they can be a challenge as well. The specialized databases we have that support the different majors on campus come from a variety of vendors who use similar but sometimes different functionality for searching, limiting, displaying, and emailing results. Most still require us to use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to build our search strategy while other use a more natural language approach similar to Google or Yahoo. Without the right vocabulary I’m either finding too little or too much information. The greatest challenge is getting an impersonal technology like search engines to understand exactly what you want particularly when no two are identical and they are constantly changing.

How are you applyingtechnology in your personal life?

I’ve been playing most recently with digitizing old audiotape recordings of my wife and friends who are much more musically inclined than me. As many others do, I’d like to preserve these recordings so I don’t lose them when their current medium is obsolete.

The librarian part of me is always looking for information about the things I do at home. Whether its household repairs or consumer information about cars, appliances, etc., I’m always doing research.

Is there a single technologicalitem you can't imagine living without?

I certainly could not do my job without my laptop. It is my constant companion at work and often comes home with me to do work from there. I use it to learn new software and manage library systems, to communicate with colleagues, and to search the literature.

Is there a particular technological item that you plan on learning and/or purchasing in the near future?

I hope to learn more about creating and editing digital media toward assisting students with the use of multimedia in the library.