Tracking innovation, development and experimentation
in information studies and library science and spotting new technologies, trends, fun stuff and much more.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The future of reading.
An interesting little article on the future of reading and the impact of the iPad: http://tinyurl.com/3x4x98o
An optimistic view of the future of reading, indeed. I'm not so sure it bodes well for librarians (and so be it if it doesn't - the buggy whip business has been floundering for the last century). The argument goes (put forth by desperate librarians like myself) that librarians - purveyors, conveyors, and organizers of information - will always be needed - and indeed, we will - but in the numbers now employed?
As the generation growing up with the internet, databases and, now, iPads comes of age, I suspect they will have learned those organization and search skills we now pride ourselves in. My 14 year old daughter has osmosed, as a matter of course, many of the computer skills I have had to consciously and laboriously teach myself. We still have before us a vast population that needs our expertise, but will that be true in five years? In 20 years when the MLS degree is dwarfed by the IT degree? (as is already happening)....
An optimistic view of the future of reading, indeed. I'm not so sure it bodes well for librarians (and so be it if it doesn't - the buggy whip business has been floundering for the last century). The argument goes (put forth by desperate librarians like myself) that librarians - purveyors, conveyors, and organizers of information - will always be needed - and indeed, we will - but in the numbers now employed?
ReplyDeleteAs the generation growing up with the internet, databases and, now, iPads comes of age, I suspect they will have learned those organization and search skills we now pride ourselves in. My 14 year old daughter has osmosed, as a matter of course, many of the computer skills I have had to consciously and laboriously teach myself. We still have before us a vast population that needs our expertise, but will that be true in five years? In 20 years when the MLS degree is dwarfed by the IT degree? (as is already happening)....
John Henry was a steel-drivin man,
Steve Kronen