Information Technologies
and the
Information Professions
and the
Information Professions
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Information Technologies
and the Information Professions |
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STUDY GUIDE, NARDI & O'DAY, Part 2
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| Part II: Case Studies; Chapter 7 (pp. 79-104) |
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| • | Chapter 7: “Librarians: A Keystone Species” |
| This chapter is the first in Part II of the book that
focuses on specific case studies based on the empirical work that
Nardi & O’Day have done. |
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| 79-80 |
in this chapter, N&O identify librarians as a keystone species,
i.e., librarians are critical to the shape, character, and ability
to survive of the information ecosystem. Please remember that the
book’s information ecologies metaphor is only a metaphor
– beware of taking it too literally or making it too concrete.
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| 81 | they state what is obvious to us but less so to our
clients, funders, and others: “Because many people are generally
unaware of how libraries work, there is a real temptation to assume
that the librarian’s work is easily automated.” |
| 82 | further, this lack of understanding is as much by design
as by accident – librarians, as well as other information professionals,
often “protect their clients from the messy details of their work.” |
| This point leads us to consider an essential element
of all kinds of information work. The transparency that we provide
(and the apparent effortlessness of what we do) is both a blessing
and a curse. Similarly, transparency in digital systems is also an
alloyed good – while supporting quick, almost second nature use of
the technologies, it suppresses self-consciousness, the ability to
diagnose and address problems, and an integrated overview of how and
why things get done the way they do. Please recall what earlier study
guides and class material have said about reflection and the explanatory
opportunity that problems present us with. |
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| the rest of the chapter explores the library ecology,
at least what it is/was like in some particular places |
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| 83 | Many people, including some in LIS, harbor assumptions
that the field is hopelessly behind the times and should be dismissed,
along with the hard-won insight and practice of millennia. N&O’s
point about the Apple and Hewlett-Packard libraries as early adopters
of new technologies underscores the fact that research, academic,
special, and K-12 librarians are often the earliest testers and adopters
of technologies. The more we learn about the history of the field
and the technologies, and keep the commercial hyperbole at bay, the
more this point emerges. |
| by the way, the discussion of technology in terms such
as “early adopters” recalls the work of Everett Rogers, a communications
scholar, and others. This approach has been extremely influential.
Although it, like all other models, is more than a bit simplistic,
it has great explanatory power. See the fourth (and latest) edition
of Rogers’ classic work Diffusion of Innovations (1995; Free
Press). |
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| 84ff | N&O underscore a central part of library and information
work – helping clients frame, articulate, and thereby understand more
fully their information needs and behavior |
| thus, this phase of information work is a negotiation,
a “creative, interactive process, to which each person brings special
expertise and knowledge” |
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| 89 | please recall, however, that a particular search for
information, whether using digital tools or not, is not synonymous
with the research process and information use generally |
| thus, it is important to understand that information
work is not simply responding to reference-type questions of the easiest
sort, e.g., what is the capital of Nepal? |
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| 91 | another complication to the complex story that Nardi
& O’Day tell involves librarians’ understanding of “the system.”
The fact that we generally know better than our clients what we will
find in any particular system and that we generally know better how
to manipulate that system is a strength of our profession, however
construed. At the same time, however, that same expertise tends to
blind us to the weaknesses of the system, to the limitations of the
assumptions upon which it is built, and to the specific features of
a particular client’s concerns. One of the most important of professional
obligations is to use all systems with a realistic understanding of
their inherent and important limitations. |
| 92 | N&O make what is arguably the most important assertion
of their chapter: “The human touch will become more, not less, important
as online information resources grow and information access tools
proliferate. . . . [but t]here is more than information therapy going
on in the librarian’s cubicle.” |
| 94 | while Nardi & O’Day do not make much of it here,
analysis, synthesis, integration, and evaluation of information resources
in the context of clients’ concerns are at the heart of what we do
– not “simple” relevance judgments related to one search. |
| here they touch on one of my favorite soap box topics:
what I call the Black Box Syndrome. This problem involves two complementary
difficulties: believing that everything of value is online and that
everything online is valuable. Both are mistaken assumptions. |
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| 96ff | a good reminder, if a bit late, that finding information
over time is much more complex than one-time searches for information |
| 99 | please recall that librarians have been acting as formal
and informal liaisons to research groups for at least five decades |
| 100 | N&O make a perceptive observation here: |
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| Do you think this is an accurate assessment of the “character”
and ethos of LIS professionals? Why or why not? |
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| 102 | this reticence, according to N&O and many other
commentators in and outside of LIS, seems to come from a number of
factors. Chief among them are what Nardi & O’Day call critical
aspects of information work – tact, diplomacy, and fineness of judgment |
| 103 | their brief reference to cataloguing reinforces the
importance of the (at least) three kinds of (inter)mediation that
LIS professionals provide: the transactional, intellectual, and social |
| 104 | unfortunately, the chapter is not fully contextualized, so it ends rather flatly and diffusely |
| Course emailbox: l38613dw@gslis.utexas.edu GSLIS Website: www.gslis.utexas.edu Last updated 2001 Aug 21 by R. E. Wyllys |