College Librarians Urged To Play Video Games 218
An anonymous reader writes "At meeting of college librarians, experts tell them they need to start thinking the way video game producers think and provide library services that will make sense to those who play computer games. 'In an era when most students would have to go to a museum to see an old-fashioned card catalog, there's no doubt that libraries have embraced technology. But speakers said that there was a larger split between students -- who are "digital natives," in one popular way of classifying people based on their experience with technology -- and librarians, who are more likely to be "digital immigrants." They may have learned the language, but it's a second language.'"
As a Digital Native... (Score:5, Insightful)
No! Kick 'em in the ass instead (Score:5, Insightful)
So where is the companion article titled:
Video game players encouraged to learn to use libraries
?
This is just depressing. More dumbing down.
OK fine, but I never thought of research as play.
True, I do this every day. But again, we're not talking about play. It's a little harder (but not impossible) to graduate from college and hold a job while inept. And of course, the best quote from the article:
Because we don't want failure to hold anybody back, teach people to learn from their mistakes, or encourage them to work harder.
What about old people? (Score:3, Insightful)
So what will they use (Score:2, Insightful)
I come from the generation who can actually do math without
a calculator. We used slide rules and log tables. We could
interpolate.
Todays digital kids would be lost in a society with no gizmo's.
Surely this is not a survival trait.
Seems like feature bloat (Score:5, Insightful)
I feel that the suggestion to have college libraries host LAN parties is just ridiculous, unless the purpose is to drive up user traffic (which a lot of the time affects funding). It seems to me that hosting LAN parties for gaming is antithetical to the purpose of a library, and would be distracting to people using the library for work (even if it's in a separate, sound-proofed area -- the temptation would be distracting to me, I'm sure). If the library has resources to host parties after hours, then I believe those resources would be much better used keeping the library open for study longer.
As for 24-7 support services, wouldn't that be expensive? And why should a college library offer full services 24-7 other than making life easier for students? I know for certain that when I work late, I don't have full support from staff at my company. I think students should get used to the fact that not all resources at at our fingertips 24-7, and we should not expect them to be. Students need to learn to manage resources well, and that includes dealing with part-time access to them.
I don't ant to sound like I'm going off on a get-off-my-lawn tirade, but I truly feel that libraries should stick to their base functions as information repositories and access points. Does this mean that library use may drop, since the internet has become the prime access point for information among younger people? Sure. But rather than expand the scope of libraries, I'd rather see reduced expenditures (like shared acquisitions {when licensing permits}, more efficient use of technology (why keep all those little-used dead trees around when digital versions are both more useful and cheaper to deal with?).
Re:As a Digital Native... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that most of today's smart youth are indeed videogame junkies with a lack of patience, but we need them to develop into tomorrow's politicians, scientists, programmers, doctors, businessmen, and engineers. This will require different tools for teachers at schools and libraries.
The truth is, most kids just aren't going to spend several hours going to the library, finding the right book, and reading some 10-20 pages to find the relevant info when they belive they can find that same info via google in 10 minutes.
Mind you, digitalizing the libraries is a far easier task than reaching the other 50%+ of kids whose parents don't value education or give a fuck that their kids are sucked into the ghetto/gang culture.
Re:giv me teh cheat codes!!!!!1 (Score:2, Insightful)
That's what bugs me the most. They seem to assume that you have to know the cataloging system in order to find anything - Dewey Decimal system and whatnot - and that if you don't know the system, you're screwed. I have absolutely no clue how the Dewey Decimal system works, but I also have no problem finding things in libraries. It's not like the libraries don't actually label the sections. If you're looking for history books, it'll say "HISTORY" on the shelves. It just means you have to walk around for a bit. Not to mention they ignore the obvious solution of walking up to said librarian and asking "Excuse me, could you tell me where the history section is?" And then they tell you, and all is well.
Re:As a Digital Native... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think rather that the young of this generation, like every other generation before and probably every one to come, would simply like to see the old discarded. A lot of the time that is based on the rational belief that when you have a better way to do things, you should do them that way, and not stick with the old because of tradition. I would further state that tradition is never a justification for doing something immoral, unethical, or just plain dumb.
Frankly I don't know or want to know or plan to use the dewey decimal system, aside from it putting books in some kind of sequential order so you can find them on the shelf. This is because they have been kind enough to organize the catalog information on the computer, and I can simply go look for books on a subject, or by an author, or by title. And I will unintentionally "use" (rather, "benefit from") the system because books tend to be grouped near like books.
Regardless, the article (while occasionally wrongheaded) makes some excellent points. While I disagree that a digital native (like myself) would never read the instruction manual before playing a new game (I do this just to find out the controls so I'm not flailing, even if there is a tutorial) it is eminently reasonable to expect the information-finding tools to not require any training, introductory documentation, et cetera. There is no reason why every interface should be as intuitive as possible.
Some of the suggestions are ridiculous (why should a librarian have to try to help me via a series of ~150-character text messages? that's not an effective use of their time) but some of them are good sense in any educational setting, like "Avoid implying to students that there is a single, correct way of doing things" (I wish more teachers would try that one) or "Look for ways to involve digital natives in designing library services and even providing them" which only makes sense - the students should be involved in the process, as they are the intended end users. But some of it is kind of ridiculous, like "Schedule support services on a 24/7/365 basis" which would require money, or "Play more video games" which is frankly not necessary for any thinking individual to be able to absorb, comprehend, and implement the more intelligent suggestions made in the article.
Re:Just the opposite (Score:5, Insightful)
We aren't talking about people who don't "know jack diddly shit about computers," we're talking about those who know how to use computers, perhaps rather efficiently and at a higher than novice level, but don't necessarily live the immersed in digital technology life that many of us do now. That was the whole key point of the article when it mentioned that today you'd have to go to a museum to see a card catalog, since most all libraries use technology. They know how to use computers, but that isn't the same as being "native" to them. There is a huge divide between those that can use computers, but don't necessarily do so outside of work, email, etc., and those that are literally on a digital device of some sort nearly 24/7 (except for sleeping of course, but the iPod alarm clock will make sure you don't sleep too long).
It really is the classic case of knowing the difference between knowing a language and being native to it. A lot of younger (30 and younger, let's say, to be diplomatic) think in digital terms (I catch myself all the time telling someone to click on the buttons in an elevator), much like native speakers of a language think it that language, regardless of whatever other languages they know. And it's not really something you can teach - you just have to try and immerse yourself, much like learning a culture by living in its native country. I don't think playing video games is really going to be that much of a help, but the core idea is somewhat solid.
Re:Just the opposite (Score:3, Insightful)
Google, Yahoo, et al, are good tools for locating information - if you know what you're looking for. Most people that I know - even "computer literate" ones, have almost no idea how to pick search terms in a way that will get them the information that they need quickly. Yes, they know how to use boolean operators, quotes and the other ways that you can tune queries, but if they don't know exactly what they're looking for to start with, they're pretty much lost. They understand the tool but don't know the method.
The "hows and whys" of doing research is something that librarians are exceptionally good at. If The internet is the greatest information-gathering tool on the planet, wouldn't librarians time be better spent helping people to understand how the best ways to accessing it more effectively?
Re:As a Digital Native... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, but my point is that you don't have to know anything whatsoever about the Dewey Decimal system (or any other library ordering scheme) to benefit from it. Once you find a book similar to the kind you want through the use of the computer or card catalog, you will necessarily find other, similar books (assuming the library has any) near the book that you know is applicable. So as I said, I would benefit from the Dewey Decimal system without actually using it.
But beyond this particular revelation, there is another to be made; even without the Dewey Decimal system it would be possible to use the catalog system to find books that are similar to the book you want. If books were inserted into the library in the order in which they were received, you could still do the same thing by searching for other books with a similar subject, although it would involve more walking. The computer is the most useful organizational scheme available.
Ultimately I think that the user would actually get more traction out of an Amazon.com-like list of related content, and content that users ultimately found to be related. This last would require either user feedback (using the computer, it's easy enough to ask the user why they checked out a certain set of books together) or an intelligent matching algorithm that would be able to recognize which books checked out together might be related; or, of course, some combination of the two, which would probably be the most successful option simply based on the validity and thus value of the collected information. This would clue you in to related works that are not in the same section.
Re:Just the opposite (Score:4, Insightful)
If a game player wants to find some sort of information out and doesn't know how, perhaps that person can simply do what everyone else does, and translate the request into proper English and simply speak it to a librarian. This is a skill that has worked well for several hundred years Oh, right, this is new technology so that obviously means all existing paradigms are invalid.
Most librarians that I have interacted with are extremely competent, know how to find what you want to know, and are helpful to a fault. Which is sort of a job requirement for them because (as the article I'm commenting on illustrates so clearly) some people have this sense of entitlement when they speak to one. They figure the librarian owes them on a personal level the information they want in the format that best suits them. That somehow it's the library's job to reach out proactively and bestow needed information on everyone like a fairy godmother. Wrong. The student is the supplicant (as much as the article seems to want to mock this), and the student that wants to know can jolly well learn how to learn. This is the greatest skill that any university can teach, and simply plopping it in a student's lap does that student no good.
Re:Uhhh... (Score:2, Insightful)
However what happens at many universities is that these same librarians are tasked with creating and managing the interface to access the information. This is where I imagine the game playing comes in, as a method of learning the basics of UI design so that a student doesn't get frustrated trying to find what they need. The universities would be better off hiring an expert on computer interface design, but so many feel that anyone can just whip up some webpages and be done with it. A few links here and there and presto the students can get to whatever they need. My wife is an university access services librarian and every at college library she has worked at (3 libraries in two universities) that is exactly what happens. She doesn't know the first thing about UI design (or for that matter even HTML coding). Yet her job in part is to contribute to the design/or create the web pages that are used to get the information. She is stuck designing interfaces for, trying to decide which systems to implement and then create methods of passing information between systems as you move from one to the next to complete your task, and then troubleshooting problems that come up. None of which was covered in her MLS program.
Re:Why would that be? (Score:2, Insightful)
Now if only their instructors could figure that out too.
Re:As a Digital Native... (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks for stereotyping us all.
I'm a librarian. I used to code in BASIC on my TI-99 when I was 7 years old. When I leave work, I go home to tinker with my computer and play WoW. I rather resent being called an antiquarian. Granted, I'm the youngest in my department, but most of the other librarians are pretty good with the catalog, at least, if not computers overall.
I'm also fairly certain they can kick your ass on almost any sort of reader's advisory or business statistics question. Does that make you stupid, or just someone who's focused most of your life on other skills? I'm willing to bet the latter.
I'm not sure why people have such a difficult time understanding that computer skills are much like language skills--that when you learn them and how much you use them makes a difference in how fluent you are. If you find your college librarians tend to be 50 and over, then they probably didn't start to learn their computer skills before age 10--the age to which the brain is making crazy amounts of neural pathways and connections and automatic responses. Hence, they're probably having to put actual thought into parts of what they are doing, which means they'll be slower than you at it.
All I can say is appreciate it now, because in a few more years, some snot-nosed twerp will be calling you antiquated for having to think about something that is second nature to him.
Re:How about ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, 400 years ago you had to be rich, white and male to use the library and books were chained to the table.
Take a cue from American Uni libraries (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, there *ARE* plenty of ways that libraries can be made more accessible to the younger generation.
For instance, the library at the university I attend requires that their reference staff be accessible by e-mail or Instant Message during their desk hours. With more and more journals and databases being online, this makes perfect sense.
I've used the Instant Message service countless times, and it's amazingly convenient.
Last year, I worked on a paper dealing with a somewhat obscure topic. The reference desk librarian wasn't able to find any journals or anthologies off the top of his head that addressed the topic, and told me he'd get back to me in a day. By the next morning, he had e-mailed several professors who he thought might be familiar with the topic, who in turn referred me to two graduate students who had written papers on similar topics, who then happily supplied me with the list of sources they had consulted.
Libraries don't need to be 'hip'. They need to be accessible.
Of course, stimulating the intellectual curiosity necessary to get people into libraries is a different ballgame entirely. (We also do have a 'popular reading' section, that in addition to popular books and movies, contains scholarly works that tie in closely to books or films, which can be a fascinating follow-up to books like The DaVinci Code or Freakonomics)