“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Week 2 Readings -- Computer Hardware & Moore's Law

All of the week two readings were basic review for me as I have a background in the semiconductor industry. My second job after graduating from college was working for a company that made polishing consumables used primarily in the semiconductor industry. I had tremendous fun doing everything from government and public relations to communications work. I got to watch a small company of 300 employees grow to well over 1300 as an indirect result of Moore’s Law. Polishing consumables were necessary in order to created a flat substrate to design smaller and smaller circuitry. Our challenge was to create increasingly perfect flat surfaces for the IC design. Eventually our company was acquired by Rohm & Haas and is now a part of their electronics division.

I really enjoyed the link to the Computer History Museum. I have young children, one of whom is really into computers, and I am looking forward to testing the link out as a teaching tool. Since my goal is to become a school librarian, I am always looking for things to fill my “resource list.”
I was only able to access two out of three of the readings for week 1 as the Emerald site proved a frustrating roadblock. I don’t know yet if others have had the same experience, but I suppose I shall find out as I read your blogs!

As a communications professional, I found both Clifford Lynch’s viewpoint and the viewpoint in Contents Not Containers right in alignment with my own. The idea of libraries thinking outside of the box and moving toward new ways of presenting materials is one that communications managers have also been promoting within the corporate environment.

Lynch is right on target in separating information technology literacy and information literacy into separate but necessary coexistent entities. On one side you have technology infrastructure and on the other you have content and communication, but they need to work together. I’m unsure about whether I agree with him or not about the preparedness of today’s students, although I do agree that they need to have a strong base education in technology literacy.

If people gain a stronger hold on technology, information flow both inside and outside the workplace will become far more efficient and beneficial. Currently, Information literacy tends to get funneled towards “experts” in the IT departments of workplaces. Not that those functions would disappear, but if individuals had greater skills, IT departments would not have all of the focus of the IT function. It would dissipate throughout the organization. Likewise, with information literacy, Communication Departments would spread their function throughout the organization. Overall, the trend leads toward a much more collaborative society