information overload
What do you think about the idea that there's just so much information out there that eventually most people choose to ignore it all instead of filter?
Information Overload
Perhaps that's what's happening with our staff.
Information Overload
Perhaps that's what's happening with our staff.
posted by leadership participant at 3:07 PM
11 Comments:
I think you make a valid point. For the tech-comfortable, we retreat into familiar and controllable experiences like our blogs, Flickr, etc.... but for those less tech-happy, where do they go? Back to analog culture, no doubt.
Absolutely! And I think info overload is equally an issue for tech-happy as well as paper-lovin' folks...
So, what can WIG do to help with the Web-related information overload for staff?
What I see that needs to be done is to focus on what is most important. Kasey is right. It's all about pounding that message into people. We see that happen with television commercials. Over and over again.
Once we've figured out what the most important points or tools or concepts are then we can move to the stage where we teach and influence. If people are thrown bits and pieces with no application, their eyes begin to glaze. This happens to people in a learning environment. They reach a point where their brain shuts down. They can't go on.
We must become clear on what we want people to know. Then consistantly teach this.
Wikipedia is, potentially, the easiest and most "logical" concept to begin with. It has an immediate application, a pop culture edge, and entries do have to have references :)
An Erasmus of Rotterdam reference, wow. As for the gateway app, I might suggest flickr or allconsuming as a first foray. Let me lay out my case for each.
Flickr. Who doesn't like sharing their own photos? And wouldn't it be cool to point a link to your friends and relatives with your photos already online? Plus, its dealing with materials you already have. And, its easy.
AllConsuming/LibraryThing. Who doesn't like talking about themselves, or what they're into? You make an account (again, free), and just type in what you're reading (or watching, or listening to, or eating). Say if you liked it or not. You can tag books with keywords and display a list on your blog, too.
Ok..I'm loving this discussion of which webbie app we should push as the new gateway drug. What do the rest of you think? Post your ideas to the blog comments! (Surely Mr. Bookpusher has some good thoughts along these lines ;)
p.s. congrats to stealthrhino on his first post...welcome to the blogosphere, Mr. Roy!
One more comment or really it's a question (sorry...can't help myself):
Kelly said, "What I see that needs to be done is to focus on what is most important."
Ok, WIGinators, what in fact is most important? You've read the Web World plan. What's the most important thing we should focus on when we consider our talking points with colleagues? (This will help with the executive summary, too.)
I think Chris's point is really valid. As a library course instructor, I cringe everytime someone tells me they used Wikipedia as their main source of information.
That said, I am not totally sure what the best "drug" is. I think we will just need to pick something and go with it, pointing out its downsides as well as the totally awesome things it can do.
I am thinking blogs or RSS feeds might be a good place to start, as that would have direct application on info staff and could be used for other things as Chris points out.
Jennifer (also no known as monkey!)
Monkey Jennifer makes good sense. I'd be all in favor of Bloglines. Pretty easy to use, free, and pertinent.
But, a hard line to draw between work and fun.
MONKEY! (sorry, just had to get that out of my system)
Good points all round. Look at Bloglines, too, as a professional development tool. Some of the most fascinating and intelligent people in the (library) world are blogging about stuff that MATTERS every single day. They cover both the day-to-day nitty gritty AND the overarching philosophical conundrums of service. Having staff pick a library blog or two to syndicate in Bloglines in addition to JCL staff blogs is the cheapest and potentially most powerful investments we could have in our staff.
Ok..I'm taking the liberty to post Peter's comments on here, because I want to keep his comments as part of this thread (Peter--I hope this is ok...let me know if you want me to delete it from the blog comments).
Peter wrote the following (in an e-mail response), and now I'm all excited about the idea of creating a Web page for the public based on cool Web tools--it can also link to the Cyber Six Pack OPAL program and other links. It never occured to me that patrons would be more interested in library thing or bloglines or flickr if we linked to it, but I love that idea. Awesome!
Peter's thoughts:
I am a strong advocate of flickr, library thing, wikipedia, bloglines, etc. I use all of those apps, some of them multiple times a day, some of them weekly or so. I think, no matter what we decide to go with as our "gateway drug" we need to make sure that it looks like the the library is pushing it, as opposed to just individual employees. I have recommended library thing to a couple of regular patrons, but I think some of them thought I was somehow trying to sell them something. They seemed interested until I told them that it was not a part of the Johnson County Library, and it wasn't linked on our web page. I think if I could have told them to click on a link on jocolibrary.com, they would have checked it out.
My vote for our gateway drug would have to go either to library thing or bloglines. Besides reader advisory, I think library thing is a great tool for those patrons who want to see a list of every book they've ever checked out because they can't remember what they've read. I decided not to catalog every book I have, but to use it as a log of what I have read, and what I want to read later. I also think bloglines (or rss feeds in general) is a strong candidate. While it may not, at first glance, be as closely tied to the library, I think it may be an even better way to hook users into the kinds of web applications we are trying to push.
Gateway drugs, pushing, hooking users. Who's got the soundtrack from Shaft?
Post a Comment
<< Home