Saturday, January 20, 2007

Blog Assignment #1

Abram, Stephen & Luther, Judy. Born with the Chip. LibraryJournal.com

A term to describe the people born between 1982 and 2002 is NextGens with roughly 81 million in the group. Just when I thought I was adapting to the tech world, I read about the NextGens and how they are considered to be "born with the chip" which may be part of their DNA no less. Abram and Luther discuss aspects of the next generation's behavior that make this group different than others and the major impact these will have on libraries and the services they provide.

NextGens want information NOW with a Google search and little consideration regarding the source of the information. Abram and Luther stress the importance of media literacy skills to help evaluate the content and diversity of the lists provided and to use the information in an effective manner in which they base their decisions. Librarians have to reach the NextGens "on their device of choice" whether it is IM, virtual reference, or other technologies and it needs to be accessible on the devices being used by them along with the hardware to support it.

Abram and Luther write that the amount of information in the future will double every 11 minutes. That is quite an astonishing figure which proves that libraries must keep up with new trends and be prepared to meet the needs of the next generation. Change can be difficult for some, although it can not be for a librarian that strives to match the needs of all patrons even those "born with the chip".

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA411572.html

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Welcome to my blog

This is a brand new experience for me and truthfully it is a little frightening. I am in LIS753 at Dominican University.