Technology and I aren't always the best of friends (why is my computer screen blue and what the heck does that error sign mean?), but if there is one thing that I am pretty comfortable with, its the many ways that individuals communicate online. I may not have been sending email messages to my doctor from the womb, but I sure as heck was sending them in the seventh grade to my current BFF (her name was Katie and she loved horses, piercings, and her mom's porkchops). I never grew up in the age where people sent actual paper letters to one another. Seriously, how many trees were killed so that one person could give a shout out to another? I was a part of the group that created false email accounts and then emailed their crush embarrassing love notes so that the crush would be clueless. Although, I never did that myself, I can count out at least five friends that did (those were the days).
Today, I have four email accounts (one of which I don't even remember the password for and therefore haven't been able to check in 5 months), IM on MSN and Yahoo (although I'm always 'away' so that the people I'm friends with but don't want to talk to never know when I'm around), a Facebook and MySpace account (the MySpace one being old and rarely updated), and I text constantly from my phone (my sore thumbs prove it!). For people who think that online communication tools should be learned because they're the 'wave of the future' I have one comment. What hole have you been living in? They aren't the wave of the future, they are the primary source of communication for millions upon millions of people now. And most of the people that use these communication tools are those who will truly influence what the library will become in the next 50 years.
At my college library (back in the day....cough cough) the librarians had just begun to really embrace the new techno world. You could email or IM a reference librarian, you could be a 'friend of the library' on Facebook. My boss used Facebook to make sure all of her library workers were on the same page, to keep us updated and create a fun space for us all to communicate and bond. Just like how you can order a pizza online (the best idea ever!) so too can you renew a book or ask a question about a late fee or item you ordered. The library has no choice but to move into the online communication world (and most are more than on their way!!), because if the library doesn't go willingly, the patrons will undoubtedly drag it kicking and screaming.
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