Earlier today I did a session on technology and libraries, for the Prison Libraries Group at CILIP HQ. Prison Librarians are extremely limited in their access to technology - essentially they operate under the same restrictions as the prisoners, so not only can they not use Twitter, they can't even Google it at work! Here is the Prezi I used - it's a whistle-stop primer of recent advances, and while normally I try to make my presentations stand up on their own I'm afraid this one is really only the bare bones and I filled in a lot of gaps with what I was saying. (Works best on full-screen mode.)
I had a really good time even though I had to leave early due to starting my new job tomorrow. It reminded me again how diverse our roles are, and how two people called 'librarians' could go for years potentially without doing the same stuff. Having to make sure certain prisoners don't get access to fiction which glorifies the very crimes they are incarcerated for is not a Collection Development decision I'll be needing to make any time soon. And having to retain the catalogue in my head because not only is it not online but there isn't even a card catalogue is a skill I'm glad I don't need - I'd be really bad at that...
For the delegates
So for anyone who was there today, here are the links I mentioned that I'd include in this post:
- Click for the SCONUL Focus issue with the technology timeline
- Click for the guide to starting a blog
- Plus click this for another seperate presenation on libraries and technology and if you're interested, click this for all the guides to technology-related library stuff I've ever written, in one place...
- Thanks for having me, I had a great time! And especially thank you to Sibylla for inviting me. :)
- thewikiman