Youth Matters

By Jennifer Burek Pierce
American Libraries Columnist

Assistant professor of library and information science, University of Iowa, Iowa City
youthmatters@ala.org

June/July 2008

Plugging into our professional perceptions of technology 

Given this environment, the Children and Technology Committee of the American Library Association’s Association for Library Service to Children wanted to hear about technology issues that impact librarians and conducted a survey in early 2008 to gather goal-setting data for the committee. Results, collected this spring, are thought-provoking.

The committee asked librarians about their proficiencies (82% felt either mostly or fully comfortable with the technology in their libraries), their priorities for technology training and continuing education (68% felt librarians would benefit from better database search skills), and their practices (19% maintain social networking sites in their professional and personal lives). A vast majority (82%) reported an interest in information about children and technology—indicating the need for further exploration and discussion.

Retooling the dialogue

Why did youth services librarians respond as they did, what values do they ascribe to technology and literacy, and how do they want to shape their institutions in an evolving, increasingly electronic context? Just as important, why did only 349 people participate?

ALSC Executive Director Diane Foote said, “While this survey didn’t net as many replies as a previous one (which got over 1,000 responses) focusing on ALSC members’ professional education needs, this is a step in the right direction for us in attempting to be more in tune with members’ wishes.”

The technology survey was, however, distributed beyond ALSC’s 3,400 members, so the figures suggest the need for more dialogue and engagement. A preliminary committee report reasoned that “those who avoid technology . . . may have avoided the electronic survey altogether.”

Libraries have changed dramatically in recent years, and technology is often seen as a major element in constructing the contemporary information landscape. Determining how youth services professionals view literacy—given its evolving context within shifting social norms—is vital.

In a 2007 white paper for the Council on Library and Information Resources, Andrew Dillon stated, “In a rapidly changing technological environment, it is never enough to teach people to use these tools.” Dillon, dean of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, argued that in the midst of flux, continued attention to core institutional missions and values is crucial.

The real questions, he contended in “Accelerating Learning and Discovery: Refining the Role of Academic Librarians,” are “less the nature of these technological innovations . . . and more the social impacts and processes that result.” Questions linger about social effects and how youth services professionals view the implications of a shifting technological landscape for their users.

Dillon endorsed the principle of serving users’ information needs “in a manner not distorted by concerns with profit or control.” “Our collective prosperity rests on our advancing this profession appropriately,” he wrote. Advancing information professionals’ ability to address young people’s recreational and information needs demands that youth services specialists begin asking themselves the sorts of questions that Dillon raises about academic librarianship.