Being sent to a “parking zone” in school used to be a punishment and so was being sent to the bedroom following an act of deviance: now it’s a teen dream. Through personal computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles, teenagers are spurning antisocial angst for a culture of “connected cocooning”.
We are living in glaringly disparate generations. With technology experiencing shorter change spans (cycles) every passing time, humans are finding themselves displaced culturally, socially and even economically. The race against time is so breathtaking to the extent that a majority have resigned to fate.
Industries that are more affected today are those that have stuck to the past in assumption that little is going to change on their jurisdiction. Humans are a crazily evolving lot. As such nothing is as constant as change.
Fig 2. getting the digital stuff shared
From the distant past, communication has been the sole element that has remained in the core of transformation. It’s optimization or lack of has always defined the progression or stagnation of every living organism. For humans, this has not only made them
Principal runners of the the world but exceedingly exploratory to a great degree. Competition among the humans is always defined to a great degree by the level of awareness and application of communication techniques in their lives. The complexity of communication has always take a dimension of generational outlook.
In today’s world for instance, technology has become the platform in which the youngest of the human generation has tended to gravitate. With endless inventiveness building up almost in every society, the world seems to have several camps of individuals separated not just by age but the extent to which they consider use of technology for communication. Whereas the yo ung and the versatile have no qualms altering their way of communication as things around them change, the old seems to abhor change. To the young, communication is seamless whereas the old seem to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
Such limitless communication is having a revolutionary impact on the way young people interact, socialize, work and play. Our
Fig 3: libraries of the future
today’s tech-savvy teen tribe is united as never before, with the lonely search for identity set to become a vision of the past.
“Technologies certainly do create cultural phenomenon, whether for good or for ill,” says Windsor Holden, senior analyst at Analysys. “Young people have seen all these different facilities, adapted them and changed the means of communication.”
THE ERA OF GOOGLE, DIGITAL NATIVES AND THE LIBRARIAN ROLE
In the era of Google, and of avid content creation on social media, blogs, and personal websites, young people need information literacy skills to find information that is useful and credible. Some of the issues they seek information on, such as health, are critical to their well-being. Knowing the strategies to find accurate information is therefore vital and school librarians can provide these.
The idea that children and young adults are digital natives has been refuted by many recent studies. Their relative lack of life experience, and of experience with the information-seeking process, means that young people cannot frame their information problem, cannot assess the credibility of the information that they have found, and often do not know the ethical considerations in creating and sharing content. They also have trouble managing privacy and online threats, and many are on social media even before they are legally allowed to sign up. There are many skills that young people must have in order to be engaged and responsible online users. School librarians are the ONLY professionals specially trained to provide instruction on such matters.
That said, it should not be forgotten that the user in question has a level of cyber exposure which a number of times can end up intimidating the librarian. This calls for librarians on their part to gain the said skills in a way that not only spells their superiority but gives them an edge in their application.
THIS IS WHERE WE COME IN
Our Librarian to Cybrarian Training is perfectly tailored for the Librarians to equip them with the appropriate technical skills, knowledge and confidence to deliver to the users the modern library information that meets his/her needs.
Are you interested in moving with the times and remaining relevant in your profession even as you embrace the emerging technological times? Then this is the forum for you. If interested kindly comment with your email address and we will get back to you with all the details about the course.
The most useful skills in your career will always come outside your formal school/class education. That is where we belong.
