History of the Whole World: Do Not Want.

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At work, I spend my time identifying changes to the information landscape and how they will impact on librarianship.

This afternoon while I waited for Mr4 at swimming lessons, I still managed to be stunned by a casual conversation with another couple of mums. It really brought home to me how much information is available to the average person, and how savvy they are becoming.

I don’t think mummy-chat in the 1980s was like this.

Mum 1: What’s that in your bag?

Mum 2: Oh, it’s just a CD of “The History of the Whole World”, they are giving them away with the Sunday Paper.

Mum1: Oh yes.

Mum 2: I’ve been picking it up in the supermarket when I get the paper, but I’m not really sure why…

Mum 1: Oh?

Mum 2: Yeah. It says here that it’s for over 9’s and my two are under five. By the time they are that old, it will all be out of date.

In case you didn’t pick it up – it was the history of the entire freakin’ world….with a Sunday Paper…..full multimedia….but rejected because it would be out of date within 4 years.

I think Mum2 made the right call, but did anyone else grow up in a household where your parents carefully paid the monthly account so they could provide you with a set of World Book Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica to last your entire school years?

(Changing the topic totally…I’ve been translated. If you visit this link, Razones buenas (y malas) para estar en Second Life, you’ll see the Spanish version of my Ten Very Good Reasons Why Your Librarians should be in Second Life and Six Very Bad Reasons to have a Library Branch in Second Life. Thanks Mixolidius. I know, I should be cool about it… pretend it happens every day….)

Walking the wiki talk

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I’m beginning to think all this theory I’ve been spouting in the last few months might have a grain of practical application. The Library2.0 Orthodoxy that’s making more sense is “wikis are useful”.

The LINT mob use a wiki to track our procedures and history. I used a wiki to plan a long family holiday in September – it was great to click on the links for phone numbers of places we were staying. Both times I was very self-consciously “using a wiki”.

This evening, however, I wanted to keep a record of some email responses to a question I’ve asked on a google list. I want to analyse and re-packaged them into dot points. Without even thinking, and in the same way I would have once opened a WORD document….I reached for a wiki. I’ve installed TikiWiki because I know how to use it. I have gazed lovingly at drupal, but I’m just in no mood to learn again.

I didn’t use something like google documents and spreadsheets, because ultimately I want to have the summary somewhere that I can share with interested people.

Come to think of it….it would be a good 3-4 months since I’ve entered anything into a WORD document..apart from my paysheet at work. Same goes for Open Office Writer at home.

I am opening Notepad more often. I’ve finally learned that anything I want to cut and paste into WordPress should be pasted into some kind of text editor, before cutting it again and pasting into WordPress. Saves hours of searching for the one rogue tag that has turned my whole sidebar upsidedown.

It’s insidious and useful, this Web2.0.
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